BV
4-fZo
33
184-0
CALL
TO
THE UNCONVERTED,
TO
TURN AND LIVE.
BY REV. RICHARD BAXTER,
"WHO DI3D A. D. 1691.
PUBLISHED BY THE
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.
This edition has been compared with the London edition of
Baxter's works, in twenty-three volumes, 1830. Some obso-
lete terms and antiquated forms of expression have been
changed, and an obscure passage at the beginning of Doctrine
3, with a few lines touching points on which Evangelical
Christians differ, omitted.
The Library
of Congress
WASHINGTON
CONTENTS.
A. Preface to the Unsanctified, exhorting them to turn and
live,. * . . .. . 7
The Text opened, 21
DOCTRINE I. It is the unchangeable Law of God,
that wicked men must turn or die, . . . .25
Objection. God will not be so Unmerciful as to damn
us — Answered, 28
Who are wicked men, and what conversion is ; and
how we may know whether we are wicked or con-
verted, 35
DOCT. II. It is the promise of God, that the wicked
shall live, if they will but turn — unfeignedly and thor-
oughly turn, ........ 58
DOCT. III. God taketh pleasure in men's conversion
and salvation, but not in their death or damnation. He
had rather they would turn and live, than go on and die, 67
DOCT. IV. The Lord hath confirmed it to us by his
oath, that he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but rather that he turn and live ; that he may leave man
no pretence to question the truth of it, . * . . . 75
Who is it then that takes pleasure in men's sin and
death ? Not God, nor ministers, nor any good men, 76
DOCT. V. So earnest is God for the conversion of
sinners that he doubleth his commands and exhortations,
with vehemency — " Turn ye, turn ye" ... 84
Some motives to obey God's call, and turn, . . 87
4
CONTENTS.
DOCT. VI. The Lord condescendeth to reason the
case with unconverted sinners, and to ask them why they
will die, . . . . ... . .102
A strange disputation. 1. For the question. 2. The
disputants, . - . . . . . . 102
Wicked men will die, or destroy themselves, . . 103
Sinners are certainly unreasonable, .... 103
Their seeming reasons confuted, .... 109
Question. Why are men so unreasonable, and loath to
turn, that they will thus destroy themselves ? — An-
swered, . . . . . . . . 128
DOCT. VII. If after all this men will not turn, it is
not the fault of God that they are condemned, but their
own, even their own wilfulness. They die because they
will, that is, because they will not turn, . . . 133
1. How unfit the wicked are to charge God with their
damnation. It is not because God is unmerciful, but
because they are cruel and merciless to themselves, 142
Objection. "We cannot convert ourselves — Answered, 147
2. The subtlety of Satan, the deceitfulness of sin and
the folly of sinners manifested, . . . 149
3. No wonder if the wicked would hinder the conver-
sion and salvation of others, . . . ' . 150
4. -Man is the greatest enemy to liimself, . . . 150
Mans destruction is of himself, . . . . 151
The heinous aggravations of self-destruction, . . 159
The concluding exhortation, . . . .162
Ten directions for those who had rather turn than die, 168
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE GREAT SUCCESS WHICH ATTENDED THE CALL
WHEN EIRST PUBLISHED.
It may be proper to prefix an account of this book given by
Mr. Baxter himself, which was found in his study after his
death, in his own words :
" I published a short treatise on conversion entitled, A Call
to the Unconverted. The occasion of this was my converse
with Bishop Usher while I was at London ; who, approving
my method and directions for Peace of Conscience, was impor-
tunate with me to write directions suited to the various states
of Christians, and also against particular sins. I reverenced
the man, but disregarded these persuasions, supposing I could
do nothing but what is done better already : but when he was
dead his words went deeper to my mind, and I purposed to
obey his counsel ; yet, so as that to the first sort of men, the
ungodly, I thought vehement persuasions meeter than direc-
tions only ; and so for such I published this little book, which
God hath blessed with unexpected success, beyond all the rest
that I have written, except The Saints' Rest. In a little more
than a year there were about twenty thousand of them printed
by my own consent, and about ten thousand since, besides
many thousands by stolen impressions, which poor men stole
for lucre's sake. Through God's mercy I have information of
6
ADVERTISEMENT.
almost whole households converted by this small book which
I set so light by ; and, as if all this in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, were not mercy enough to me, God, since I was
silenced, hath sent it over in his message to many beyond the
seas ; for when Mr. Eliot had printed all the Bible in the Ind-
ian language, he next translated this my Call to the Uncon-
verted, as he wrote to us here. And yet God would make
some farther use of it ; for Mr. Stoop, the pastor of the French
Church in London, being driven hence by the displeasure of
his superiors, was pleased to translate it into French. I hope
it will not be unprofitable there ; nor in Germany, where also
it has been printed."
It may be proper further to mention Dr. Bates' account of
the author of this useful treatise. In his sermon at Mr. Bax-
ter's funeral, he thus says ; " His books of practical divinity
have been effectual for more conversions of sinners to God
than any printed in our time ; and while the church remains
on earth, will be of continual efficacy to recover lost souls.
There is a vigorous pulse in them, that keeps the reader
awake and attentive. His Call to the Unconverted, how
small in bulk, but how powerful ! Truth speaks in it with
such authority and efficacy, that it makes the reader to lay
his hand upon his heart, and find that he has a soul and a
conscience, though he lived before as if he had none. He
told some friends, that six brothers were converted by reading
this Call ; and that every week he received letters of some
converted by his books. This he spake with most humble
thankfulness, that God was pleased to use him as an instru-
ment for the salvation of souls.'
FROM THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE
TO ALL UNSANCTIFIED PERSONS THAT SHALL READ THIS
BOOK, ESPECIALLY OF MY HEARERS IN KIDDERMINSTER.
Men and Brethren — The eternal God, that made you
for a life everlasting, and hath redeemed you by his only
Son, when you had lost it and yourselves, being mindful of
you in your sin and misery, hath indited the Gospel, and
sealed it by his Spirit, and commanded his ministers to
preach it to the world ; that pardon being freely offered
you, and Heaven being set before you, he might call you
off from your fleshly pleasures, and from following after
this deceitful world, and acquaint you with the life that
you were created and redeemed for, before you are dead
and past remedy. He sendeth you not prophets or apos-
tles, that receive their message by immediate revelation ,
but yet he calleth you by his ordinary ministers, who are
commissioned by him to preach the same Gospel which
Christ and his apostles first delivered. The Lord seeth
how you forget him and your latter end, and how light
you make of everlasting things, as men that understand
not what they have to do or suffer. He seeth how bold
you are in sin, how fearless of his threatenings, and how
careless of your souls, and how the works of infidels are
8
PREFACE,
in your lives, while the belief of Christians is in your
mouths. He seeth the dreadful day at hand, when your
sorrows will begin, and you must lament all this with
fruitless cries in torment and desperation : then the re-
membrance of your folly will tear your hearts, if true
conversion now prevent it not.
In compassion to }~our sinful miserable souls, the Lord,
that better knows your case than you can know it, hath
made it our duty to speak to you in his name, 2 Cor. 5 : 19,
and to tell you plainly of your sin and misery, and what
will be your end, and how sad a change you will shortly
see, if yet you go on a little longer. Having bought you
at so dear a rate as the blood of his Son Jesus Christ, and
made you so free and general a promise of pardon, and
grace, and everlasting glory ; he commandeth us to ten-
der all this to you as the gift of God, and to entreat you
to consider the necessity and worth of what he offers.
He sees and pities you, while you are drowned in worldly
cares and pleasures, eagerly following childish toys, and
wasting that short and precious time for a thing of naught,
m which you should make ready for an everlasting life ;
and therefore he hath commanded us to call after you and
tell you how you lose your labor and are about to lose
your souls, and tell you what greater and better things
you might certainly have if you would hearken to his call.
Isa. 55 : 1, 2, 3. We believe and obey the voice of God ;
and come to you on his message, who hath charged us to
preach, and be instant with you in season and out of sea-
son, to lift up our voice like a trumpet, and show you your
transgressions and your sins. Isa. 58 : 1 ; 2 Tim. 4:1,2.
But, alas ! to the grief of our souls and your undoing,
you stop your ears, you stiffen your necks, you harden
PREFACE.
9
your hearts ; and sena us back to God with groans, to tell
him that we have done his message, but can do no good
to you, nor scarcely get a sober hearing. Oh! that our
eyes were as a fountain of tears, that we might lament
our ignorant careless people, that have Christ, and pardon,
and life, and heaven before them, and have not hearts to
know or value them ! that might have Christ, and grace,
and glory, as well as others, if it were not for their wilful
negligence and contempt ! O that the Lord would fill our
hearts with more compassion to these miserable souls,
that we might cast ourselves even at their feet, and follow
them to their houses, and speak to them with our bitter
tears. For long have we preached to many of them in
vain. We study plainness, to make them understand, and
many of them will not understand us ; we study serious
piercing words, to make them feel, but they will not feel.
If the greatest matters would work with them, we should
awake them ; if the sweetest things would work, we should
entice them and win their hearts ; if the most dreadful
things would work, we should at least affright them from
their wickedness ; if truth and sincerity would take with
them, we should soon convince them; if the God that
made them, and Christ that bought them, might be heard,
the case would soon be altered with them ; if Scripture
might be heard, we should soon prevail ; if reason, even
the best and strongest reason, might be heard, we should
not doubt but we should speedily convince them : if expe-
rience might be heard, even their own experience and the
experience of all the world, the matter might be mended ;
yea, if the conscience within them might be heard, the case
would be better with them than it is. But if nothing can
be heard, what then shall we do for them ? If the dread-
10
PREFACE.
ful God of heaven be slighted, who then shall be regarded ?
If the inestimable love and blood of a Redeemer be made
light of, what then shall be valued ? If heaven have no
desirable glory with them, and everlasting joys be nothing
worth ; if they can jest at hell, and dance about the bot-
tomless pit, and play with the consuming fire, and that
when God and man warn them of it, what shall we do for
such souls as these ?
Once more, in the name of the God of heaven, I shall
do the message to you which he hath commanded us, and
leave it in these standing lines to convert you or condemn
you ; to change you, or rise up in judgment against you,
and to be a witness to your faces that once you had a
serious call to turn. Hear, all you that are drudges of the
world and servants of the flesh and Satan! that spend
your days in looking after prosperity on earth, and drown
your conscience in drinking, and gluttony, and idleness,
and foolish sports ; and know your sin, and yet will sin, as
if you set God at defiance, and bade him do his worst and
spare not ! Hearken, all you that mind not God, and
nave no heart to holy things, and feel no savor in the word
or worship of the Lord, or in the thoughts or mention of
eternal life ; that are careless of your immortal souls, and
never bestow one hour in inquiring what case they are in,
whether sanctified or unsanctified, and whether you are
ready to appear before the Lord ! Hearken, all you that,
by sinning in light, have sinned yourselves into infidelity,
and do not believe the word of God. He that hath an
ear to hear, let him hear the gracious and yet dreadful
call of God ! His eye is all the while upon you. Your
sins are registered, and you shall surely hear of them
again. God keepeth the book now ; and he will write it
PREFACE.
11
upon your consciences with his terrors ; and then you also
shall keep it yourselves ! O sinners, that you but knew
what you are doing, and whom you are all this while
offending ! The sun itself is darkness before the glory
of that Majesty which you daily abuse and carelessly pro-
voke. The sinning angels were not able to stand before
him, but were cast down to be tormented with devils.
And dare such worms as you so carelessly offend, and set
yourselves against your Maker ! O that you did but a
little know what a case that wretched soul is in, that hath
engaged the living God against him ! The word of his
mouth that made thee, can unmake thee ; the frown of his
face will cut thee off and cast thee out into outer darkness.
How eager are the devils to be doing with thee, that have
tempted thee, and do but wait for the word from God to
take and use thee as their own ! and then in a moment
thou wilt be in hell. If God be against thee, all things
are against thee : this world is but thy prison, for all thou
so lovest it ; thou art but reserved in it to the day of wrath,
Job 21 : 30 ; the Judge is coming, thy soul is even going.
Yet a little while, and thy friend shall say of thee, "He is
dead ;" and thou shalt see the things that thou now dost
despise, and feel that which now thou wilt not believe.
Death will bring such an argument as thou canst not an-
swer ; an argument that shall effectually confute thy cavils
against the word and ways of God. And then how soon
will thy mind be changed ! Then be an unbeliever if thou
canst; stand then to all thy former v/ords, which thou wast
wont to utter against a holy and a heavenly life. Make good
that cause then before the Lord which thou wast wont to
plead against thy teachers, and against the people that
feared God. Then stand to thy old opinions and con-
PREFACE.
temptuous thoughts of the diligence of the saints : make
ready now thy strong reasons, and stand up then before
the Judge and plead like a man for thy fleshly, thy worldly,
thy ungodly life. But know that thou wilt have One to
plead with that will not be outfaced by thee ; nor so easily
put off as we thy fellow-creatures.
O deceived, wretched soul ! there is nothing but a
slender veil of flesh between thee and that amazing sight,
which will quickly silence thee, and turn thy tone, and
make thee of another mind ! As soon as death hath drawn
this curtain, thou shalt see that which will quickly leave
thee speechless. And how quickly will that day and hour
come ! When thou hast had but a few more merry hours,
and but a few more pleasant draughts and morsels, and a
little more of the honors and riches of the world, thy por-
tion will be spent, and thy pleasures ended, and all is then
gone that thou settest thy heart upon: of all that thou
soldest thy Saviour and salvation for, there is nothing left
but the heavy reckoning. As a thief, that sits merrily
spending the money which he hath stolen in an alehouse,
when men are riding in posthaste to apprehend him, so is
it with you. While you are drowned in cares of fleshly
pleasures, and making merry with your own shame, death
is coming in posthaste to seize upon you, and carry your
soul to such a place and state as now you little know or
think of. Suppose, when you are bold and busy in your
sin, that a messenger were but coming posthaste to ap-
prehend you and take away your life ; though you saw
him not, yet if you knew that he was coming, it would
mar your mirth, and you would be tliinking of the haste
he makes, and hearkening when he knocked at your door.
O that you could but see what haste Death makes, though
PREFACE.
18
he has not yet overtaken you ! No post so swift ; no mes-
senger more sure. As sure as the sun will be with you
in the morning, though it hath many thousand and hundred
thousand miles to go in the night, so sure will Death be
quickly with you ; and then where is your sport and pleas-
ure ? Then will you jest and brave it out ? Then will
you jeer at them that warned you ? Then is it better to
be a believing saint, or a sensual worldling ? And then
whose shall all these things be that you have gathered?
Luke 12 : 19-21. Do you not observe that days and weeks
are quickly gone, and nights and mornings come apace,
and speedily succeed each other ? You sleep, but your
damnation slumbereth not ; you linger, but your judgment
this long time lingereth not, to which you are reserved
for punishment. 2 Pet 2 : 3-9. O that you were wise to
understand this, and that you did consider your latter end !
Deut. 32 : 29. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear
the call of God in this day of his salvation.
O careless sinners! that you did but know the love
that you unthankfully neglect, and the preciousness of the
blood of Christ which you despise ! O that you did but
know the riches of the Gospel ! O that you did but know
a little the certainty, and the glory and blessedness of that
everlasting life, which now you will not set your hearts
upon, nor be persuaded first and diligently to seek. Heb.
11 : 6, and 12 : 28 ; and Matt. 6 : 13. Did you but know
the endless life with God which you now neglect, how
quickly would you cast away your sin, how quickly would
you change your mind and life, your course and company,
and turn the streams of your affections, and lay out your
care another way. How resolutely would you scorn to
yield to such temptations as now deceive you and carry
14
PREFACE.
you away. How zealously would you bestir yourselves
for that most blessed life. How earnest would you be
with God in prayer. How diligent in hearing, learning,
and inquiring. How serious in meditating on the laws
of God. Psa. 1 : 2. How fearful of sinning in thought,
word, or deed ; and how careful to please God and grow
in holiness. O what a changed people you would be ! And
why should not the certain word of God be believed by
you, and prevail with you, which openeth to you these
glorious and eternal things ?
Yea, let me tell you that even here on earth you little
know the difference between the life you refuse and the
life you choose. The sanctified are conversing with God
when you dare scarce think of him, and when you are
conversing with but earth and flesh. Their conversation
is in heaven, when you are utter strangers to it, and your
belly is your god and you are minding earthly tilings
Phil. 3 : 18-20. They are seeking after the face of God,
when you seek for nothing higher than this world. They
are busily laying up for an endless life, where they shall
be equal with the angels, Luke 20 : 36, when you are
taken up with a shadow and a transitory thing of naught
How low and base is your earthly, fleshly, sinful life, in
comparison of the noble spiritual life of true believers.
Many a time have I looked on such men with grief and
pity, to see them trudge about the world, and spend their
lives, and care and labor for nothing but a little food and
raiment, or a little fading pelf, or fleshly pleasures, or
empty honors, as if they had no higher things to mind.
What difference is the^e Detween the lives of these men
and of the beasts tnat perish, that spend their time in work-
ing, and eating, and living but that they may live ? They
PREFACE.
15
taste not the inward heavenly pleasures which believers
taste and live upon. I had rather have a little of their
comfort, which the forethoughts of their heavenly inher-
itance afford them, though I had all their scorn and suf
fering with it, than to have all your pleasures and treach-
erous prosperity. I would not have one of your secret
jmngs of conscience, and dark and dreadful thoughts of
death and the life to come, for all that ever the world hath
done for you, or all that you can reasonably hope that it
should do. ' If I were in your unconverted carnal state,
and knew but what I know, and believed but what I now
believe, metliinks my life would be a foretaste of hell.
How oft should I be thinking of the terrors of the Lord,
and of the dismal day that is hastening on ! Sure death
and hell would be still before me. I should think of them
by day, and dream of them by night ; I should lie down
in fear, and rise in fear, and live in fear, lest death should
come before I were converted. I should have small felic-
ity in any thing that I possessed, and little pleasure in
any company, and little joy in any thing in the world, as
long as I knew myself to be under the curse and wrath
of God. I should be still afraid of hearing that voice,
" Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee."
Luke 12 : 20. And that fearful sentence would be written
upon my conscience, " There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked." Isa. 48 : 22 ; 57 : 21.
O poor sinners ! It is a more joyful life than this that
you might live if you were but willing, but truly willing
to hearken to Christ, and come home to God. You might
then draw near to God with boldness, and call him your
Father, and comfortably trust him with your souls and
Bodies. If you look upon the promises, you may say,
lb
PREFACE
They are all mine. If upon the curse, you may say, From
this I am delivered. When you read the law, you may
see what you are saved from. When you read the Gos-
pel, you may see him mat redeemed you. and see the
course of his love, and holy life, and sufferings, and trace
him in his temptations, tears, and blood, in the work of
your salvation. You may see death conquered and heaven
opened, and your resurrection and glorification provided
for in the resurrection and glorification of your Lord. If
you look on the saints, you may say, They are my brethren
and companions. If on the unsanc titled, you may rejoice
to think that you are saved from that state. If you look
upon the heavens, the sun, and moon, and stars innumer-
able, you may think and say. My Father's face is iminitely
more glorious ; it is higher matters that he hath prepared
for his saints : yonder is but the outward court of heaven.
The blessedness that he hath promised me is so much
higher, that flesh and blood cannot behold it. If you think
of the grave, you may remember that the glorified Spirit,
a living Head, and a loving Father, have all so near a
relation to your dust, that it cannot be forgotten or neg-
lected, but will more certainly revive than the plants and
flowers in the spring : because the soul is still alive, which
is the root of the body : and Christ is alive, which is the
root of both. Even death, which is the king of fears, may
be remembered and entertained with joy, as being the day
of your deliverance from the remnant of sin and sorrow:
the day which you believed, and hoped, and waited for,
when you shall see the blessed things which you had
heard of, and shall find by present joyful experience what
it was to choose the better part, and to be a sincere be-
lieving saint What say you, sirs ? Is not tins a more
PREFACE.
delightful life, to be assured of salvation and ready to die,
than to live as the ungodly, that have their hearts over-"
charged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares
of this life, and so that day comes upon them unawares ?
Luke 21 : 34, 36. Might you not live a comfortable life,
if once you were made the heirs of heaven, and sure to
be saved when you leave the world ? O look about you,
then, and think what you do, and cast not away such hopes
as these for very nothing. The flesh and the world can
give you no such hopes or comforts.
I have but three requests to you, and I have done.
1. That you will seriously read over this small treatise ;
and if you have such as need it in your families, that you
will read it over and over to them ; and if those that fear
God would go now and then to their ignorant neighbors,
and read this or some other book to them on this subject,
they might be a means of winning souls. If we cannot
entreat so small a labor of men for their own salvation as
to read such short instructions as these, they set little by
themselves, and will most justly perish.
2. When you have read over this book, I would entreat
you to go alone and ponder a little what you have read,
and bethink you, as in the sight of God, whether it be not
true, and do not nearly touch your, souls, and whether it
be not time to look about you. . And also entreat you, that
you will upon your knees beseech the Lord that he will
open your eyes to understand the truth, and turn your
hearts to the love of God, and beg of him all that saving
grace which you have so long neglected, and follow it on
from day to day, till your hearts be changed. And withal,
that you will go to your pastors — that are set over you to
take care of the health and safety of your souls, as phy-
o
* B. CaU.
13
PREFACE.
sicians do for the health of your hodies — and desire tnem
to direct you what course to take, and acquaint them with
your spiritual state, that you may have the benefit of then
advice and ministerial help.
If you have not a faithful pastor at home, make use of
some other in so great a need.
3. When, by reading, consideration, prayer, and minis-
terial advice, you are once acquainted with your sin and
misery, with your duty and remedy, delay not, but pres-
ently forsake your sinful company and courses, and turn
to God and obey his call. As you love your souls, take
heed that you go not on against so loud a call of God,
and against your own knowledge and conscience, lest it
go worse with you in the day of judgment than with Sodom
and Gomorrah. Inquire of God, as a man that is willing
to know the truth, and not be a wilful cheater of his soul.
Search the holy Scriptures daily, and see whether these
things be so : try impartially whether it be safer to trust
heaven or earth, and whether it be better to follow God or
man, the Spirit or the flesh, better to live in holiness or
sin, and whether an unsanctified state be safe for you tc
abide in one day longer ; and when you have found out
which is best, resolve accordingly, and make your choice
without any more ado. If you will be true to your own
soils, and do not love everlasting torments, I beseech you,
as from the Lord, that you will but take this reasonable
advice. Then at your deathbed how boldly might we
comfort and encourage your departing souls! And at
your burial, how comfortably might we leave you in the
grave, in expectation to meet your souls in heaven, and to
see your bodies raised to that glory !
But, if still the most of you will go on in a careless
PREFACE.
19
ignorant, fleshly, worldly, or unholy life, and all our de-
sires and labors cannot so far prevail as to keep you from
the wilful dpjnning of yourselves, we must then imitate
our Lord, who delighteth himself in those few that are
jewels, and in a little flock that shall receive the kingdom,
when the most shall reap the misery which they sowed.
In nature, excellent things are few. The world hath not
many suns or moons ; it is but a little of the earth that is
gold or silver. Princes and nobles are but a small part
of the sons of men : it is no great number that are learned,
judicious, or wise, here in this world. And, therefore, if
the gate being strait and very narrow, there be but few
that find salvation, yet God will have his glory and pleas-
ure in those few. And when Christ shall come with his
mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lorti
Jesus Christ, his coming will be glorified in his saints, auc
axlmired in all true believers. 2 Thess. 1 : 7-10.
And for the rest, as God the Father vouchsafed to cre-
ate them, and God the Son disdained not to bear the pen-
alty of their sins upon the cross, and did not judge such
sufferings vain, though he knew that by refusing the sanc-
tification of the Holy Ghost they would finally destroy
themselves, so we, that are his ministers, though these be
not gathered, judge not our labor wholly lost. See Isa.
49:5.
Reader, I have done with thee, when thou hast perused
this book, but sin hath not yet done with thee, even those
that thou thoughtest had been forgotten long ago ; and
Satan hath not yet done with thee, though now he be out
of sight ; and God hath not yet done with thee, because
thou wilt not be persuaded to have done with deadly
20
PREFACE.
reigning sin. I have written thee this persuasive, as one
that is going into another world, where the things are
seen that I here speak of, and as one that knoweth thou
must be shortly there thyself. As ever thou wilt meet me
with comfort before the Lord that made us; as ever thou
wilt escape the everlasting plagues prepared for the final
neglecters of salvation, and for all that are not sanctified
by the Holy Ghost, and love not the communion of the
saints as members of the holy catholic church; and as
ever thou hopest to see the face of Christ the Judge, and
of the majesty of the Father, with peace and comfort, and
to be received into glory when thou art turned naked out
of this world ; I beseech thee, I charge thee, to hear and
obey the call of God, and resolvedly to turn, that thou
mayest live. But, if thou wilt not, even when thou hast
no true reason for it but because thou wilt not, I summon
thee to answer it before the Lord, and require thee there
to bear me witness that I gave thee warning, and that
thou wast not condemned for want of a call to turn and
live, but because thou wouldst not believe it, and obey it
which also must be the testimony of thy serious monitor
December 11, 1657.
RICHARD BAXTER
A CALL
TO
THE UNCONVERTED.
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleas-
ure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn
from his way and live : turn ye, turn ye from your evL
ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel 1 Ezekiel
33:11.
It hath been the astonishing wonder of many a
man as well as me, to read in the Holy Scripture
how few will be saved, and that the greatest part
even of those that are called, will be everlastingly
shut out of the kingdom of heaven, and be tormented
with the devils in eternal fire. Infidels believe not
this when they read it, and therefore they must feel
it : those that do believe it are forced to cry out with
Paul, " 0 the depth of the riches both of the wis-
dom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable
are his judgments, and his ways past finding out !"
Bom. 11 : 33. But nature itself doth teach us all
to lay the blame of evil works upon the doers ; and
therefore when we see any heinous thing done, a
principle of justice doth provoke us to inquire after
22
A CALL TO
him that did it, that the evil of the work may return
the evil of shame upon the author. If we saw a
man killed and cut in pieces by the way, we should
presently ask, Oh ! who did this cruel deed ? If the
town was wilfully set on fire, you would ask, What
wicked wretch did this? So when we read that
many souls will be miserable in hell for ever, we
must needs think with ourselves, How comes this to
pass ? and whose fault is it ? Who is it that is so
cruel as to be the cause of such a thing as this ? and
we can meet with few that will own the guilt. It is
indeed confessed by all, that Satan is the cause ; but
that doth not resolve the doubt, because he is not the
principal cause. He doth not force men to sin, but
tempts them to it, and leaves it to their own wills
whether they will do it or not. He doth not carry
men to an alehouse and force open their mouths and
pour in the drink ; nor doth he hold them that they
cannot go to God's service ; nor doth he force their
hearts from holy thoughts. It lieth therefore be-
tween God himself, and the sinner; one of them
must needs be the principal cause of all this misery,
whichever it is, for there is no other to lay it upon ;
and God disclaimeth it, he will not take it upon him ;
and the wicked disclaim it usually, and they will not
take it upon them, and this is the controversy that
is here managing in my text.
The Lord complaineth of the people ; and the
people think it is the fault of God. The same con-
THE UNCONVERTED.
23
troversy is handled, chap. 18 : 25 ; they plainly say,
"that the way of the Lord is not equal." So here
they say, verse 19, "If our transgressions and our
sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how
shall we then live?" As if they should say, If we
must die and be miserable, how can we help it ? as
if it were not their fault, but God's. But God, in
my text, doth clear himself of it, and telleth them
how they may help it if they will, and persuadeth
them to use the means, and if they will not be per-
suaded, he lets them know that it is the fault of
themselves ; and if this will not satisfy them, he will
not forbear to punish them. It is he that will be
the Judge, and he will judge them according to their
O 7 JO o
ways ; they are no judges of him or of themselves,
they want authority, and wisdom, and impartiality ;
nor is it their cavilling and quarrelling with God that
shall serve then turn, or save them from the execu-
tion of that justice at which they murmur.
The words of this verse contain, 1. God's clearing
himself from the blame of their destruction. This
he doth not by disowning his law that the wicked
shall die, nor by disowning his judgment and execu-
tion according to that law, or giving them any hope
that the law shall not be executed ; but by profess-
ing that it is not their death that he takes pleasure in,
but their returning rather, that they may live ; and
this he confirmeth to them by his oath. 2. An ex-
press exhortation to the wicked to return ; wherein
A CALL TO
God dotli not only command, but persuade and con-
descend also to reason the case with. them. Why
■will they die ? The direct end of this exhortation
is, that they may turn and live. The secondaiy or
reserved ends, upon the supposition that this is not
attained, are these two : 1. To convince them by the
means which he used, that it is not the fault of God
if they are miserable. 2. To convince them, from
their manifest wilfulness in rejecting all his com-
mands and persuasions, that it is the fault of them-
selves, and that they die, even because they will die.
The substance of the text doth he in these ob-
servations following :
Doctrine 1. It is the unchangeable law of God,
that wicked men must turn or die.
Doctrixe 2. It is the promise of God, that the
wicked shall live, if they will but turn.
Doctrixe 3. God takes pleasure in men's conver-
sion and salvation, but not in then death or damna-
tion : he had rather they would return and live, than
go on and die.
Doctrixe 4. This is a most certain truth, which,
because God would not have men to question, he
hath confirmed it to them solemnly by his oath.
Doctrixe 5. The Lord doth redouble his com-
mands and persuasions to the wicked to turn.
Doctrixe 6. The Lord condescendeth to reason
the case with them; and asketh the wicked why
they will die ?
THE UNCONVERTED.
25
Doctrine 7. If after all this the wicked will not
turn, it is not the fault of God that they perish, but of
themselves ; their own wilfulness is the cause of their
damnation ; they therefore die because they will die.
Having laid open the text in these propositions, I
shall next speak somewhat of each of them in order,
though briefly.
DOCTRINE I.
It is the unchangeable Law of God, that wicked men must
turn or die.
If you will believe God, believe this : there is
but one of these two ways for every wicked man,
either conversion or damnation. I know the wicked
will hardly be persuaded either of the truth or equity
of this. No wonder if the guilty quarrel with the
law. Few men are apt to believe that which they
would not have to be true, and fewer would have
that to be true which they apprehend to be against
them. But it is not quarrelling with the law, or
with the judge, that will save the malefactor. Be-
lieving and regarding the law might have prevented
his death; but denying and accusing it will but
hasten it. If it were not so, a hundred would bring
their reason against the law, for one that would bring
his reason to the law, and men would rather choose
to give their reasons why they should not be pun-
A CALL TO
ished, than to hear the commands and reasons of
their governors which require them to obey. The
law was not made for you to judge, but that you
might be ruled and judged by it.
But if there be any so blind as to venture to ques-
tion either the truth or the justice of this law of God,
I shall briefly give you that evidence of both which
methinks should satisfy a reasonable man. And,
L If you doubt whether this be the word of God
or not, besides a hundred other texts, you may be
satisfied by these few : Matt. 18 : 3. " Verily, I say
unto you, except ye be converted, and become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven." John 3:3. "Verily, verily, I say
imto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God." 2 Cor. 5:17. "If any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old things
are passed away ; behold, all things are become
new." Col. 3 : 9, 10. "Ye have put off the old
man with his deeds, and have put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge after the image of
him that created him." Heb. 12:14. "Without
holiness no man shall see the Lord." Rom. 8 : 8, 9.
" So then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God. JSow, if any man have not the spirit of Christ,
he is none of his." Gal. 6:15. "For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creature." 1 Pet. 1 : 3.
" According to his abundant mercy, he hath begotten
THE UNCONVERTED.
us to a lively hope." Ver. 23. " Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abide th for ever."
1 Pet. 2:1,2. " Wherefore, laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies, and all
evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere
milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." Psa.
9 : 17. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and
all the nations that forget God." Psa, 11:5. " And
the Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked his soul
hateth."
As I need not stay to open these texts which are
so plain, so I think I need not add any more of that
multitude which speak the like. If thou be a man
that dost believe the word of God, here is already
enough to satisfy thee that the wicked must be con-
verted or condemned. You are already brought so
far that you must either confess that this is true, or
say plainly, you will not believe the word of God.
And if once you come to that pass there is but
small hope of you : look to yourself as well as you
can, for it is likely you will not be long out of hell.
You would be ready to fly in the face of him, that
should give you the he ; and yet dare you give the
lie to God ? But if you tell God plainly you will
not believe him, blame him not if he never warn you
more, or if he forsake you, and give you up as hope-
less ; for to what purpose should he warn you, if you
will not believe him ? Should he send an angel from
A CALL TO
heaven to you, it seems you would not believe. For
an angel can speak but the word of God ; and if an
angel should bring you any other gospel, you are
not to receive it, but to hold him accursed. Gal. 1:8.
And surelv, there is no ano;el to be belieyed before
the Son of God, who came from the Father to bring
us this doctrine. If he be not to be believed, then
all the angels in heaven are not to be believed. And
if you stand on these terms with God, I shall leave
you till he deal with you hi a more convincing way.
God hath a voice that will make you hear. Though
he entreat you to hear the voice of his Gospel, he
•will make you hear the voice of his condemning sen-
tence, without entreaty. We cannot make you be-
lieve against your wills ; but God will make you feel
against your wills.
But let us hear what reason you have why you
will not believe this word of God, which tells us
that the wicked must be converted, or condemned.
I know your reason ; it is because you judge it un-
likely that God should be so unmerciful : you think
it cruelty to damn men everlastingly for so small a
thing as a sinful life. And this leads us,
II. To justify the equity of God in his laws and
judgments.
1. I think you will not deny that it is most suit-
able to an immortal soul to be ruled by laws that
promise an immortal reward, and threaten an end
THE UN CONVERTED.
29
less punishment. Otherwise the law would not be
suited to the nature of the subject, who will not be
fully ruled by any lower means than the hopes or
fears of everlasting things : as it is in eases of tem-
poral punishment, if a law were now made that the
most heinous crimes should be punished with a hun-
dred years' captivity, this might be of some efficacy,
as being equal to our lives. But, if there had been
no other penalties before the flood, when men lived
eight or nine hundred years, it would not have been
sufficient, because men would know that they might
have so many hundred years' impunity afterwards.
So it is in our present case.
2. I suppose that you will confess that the prom-
ise of an endless and inconceivable glory is not un-
suitable to the wisdom of God or the case of man ;
and why then should you not think so of the threat-
ening of an endless and unspeakable misery ?
3. When you find it in the word of God that so
it is, and so it will be, do you think yourselves fit to
contradict this word ? Will you call your Maker to
the bar, and examine his word upon the accusation
of falsehood ? Will you sit upon him and judge him
by the law of your conceits ? Are you wiser, and
better, and more righteous than he ? Must the God
of heaven come to school to you to learn wisdom ?
Must Infinite Wisdom learn of folly, and Infinite
Goodness be corrected by a sinner that cannot keep
himself an hour clean ? Must the Almighty stand
A C A L L TO
at the bar of a worm ? 0 horrid arroo*ancv of sense-
less dust ! Shall a mole, or clod, or dunghill, accuse
the sun of darkness, and undertake to illuminate the
world ? Where were you when the Almighty made
the laws, that he did not call you to his counsel ?
Surely, he made them before you were born, without
desiring your advice ; and you came into the world
too late to reverse them, if you could have done so
great a work. You should have stepped out of your
nothingness and have contradicted Christ when he
was on earth, or Moses before him, or have saved
Adam and his sinful progeny from the threatened
death, that so there might have been no need of
Christ. And what if God withdraw his patience
and sustaining power, and let you drop into hell
while you are quarrelling with his word, will you
then believe that there is a hell ?
4. If sin be such an evil that it requireth the death
of Christ for its expiation, no wonder if it deserve
our everlasting misery.
5. And if the sin of devils deserve an endless tor-
ment, why not also the sin of man ?
6. And methinks you should perceive that it if
not possible for the best of men, much less for the
wicked, to be competent judges of the desert of sin.
Alas ! we are both blind and partial. You can never
know fully the desert of sin, till you fully know the
evil of sin ; and you can never fully know the evil
of sin, till you fully know, 1. The excellency of the
THE UNCONVERTED.
31
soul which it deformeth. 2. The excellency of ho-
liness which it obliterates. 3. The reason and ex-
cellency of the law which it violates. 4. The ex-
cellency of the glory which it despises. 5. The
excellency and office of reason which it treadeth
down. 6. No, nor till you know the infinite excel-
lency, almightiness, and holiness of that God against
whom it is committed. When you fully know all
these, you shall fully know the desert of sin. Be-
sides, you know that the offender is too partial to
judge the law or the proceedings of his judge. We
judge by feeling, which blinds our reason. We see,
in common worldly things, that most men think the
cause is right which is their own, and that all is
wrong that is done against them ; and let the most
wise, or just, or impartial friends persuade them to
the contrary, and it is all in vain. There are few
children but think the father is unmerciful, or deal-
eth hardly with them, if he whip them. There is
scarce the vilest wretch but thinketh the church doth
wrong him if they excommunicate him ; or scarce a
thief or murderer that is hanged, but would accuse
the law and judge of cruelty, if that would serve
their turn.
7. Can you think that unholy souls are fit fo?
heaven ? Alas, they cannot love God here, nor do
him any service which he can accept. They are
contrary to God, they loathe that which he most
loveth, and love that which he abhorreth. They are
32
A CALL TO
incapable of that .imperfect communion with him
which his saints here partake of. How then can
they live in that perfect love of him, and full delight
and communion with him, which is the blessedness
of heaven ? You do not accuse yourselves of un-
mercifulness if you make not your enemy your bosom
counsellor ; or if you take not your swine to bed and
board with you ; no, nor if you take away his life,
though he never sinned ; and yet you will blame the
absolute Lord, the most wise and gracious Sovereign
of the world, if he condemn the unconverted to per-
petual misery.
I beseech you now, all that love your souls, that,
instead of quarrelling with God and with Ins word,
you will presently receive it, and use it for your
good. All you that are yet unconverted, take this
as the undoubted truth of God : You must, ere long,
7 O 7
be converted or condemned ; there is no other way
but to turn, or die. "When God, that cannot lie,
hath told you this ; when you hear it from the Maker
and Judge of the world, it is time for him that hath
ears to hear. By this time you may see what you
have to trust to. You are but dead and damned
men, except you will be converted. Should I tell
you otherwise, I should deceive }~ou with a lie.
Should I hide this from you, I should undo you, and
be guilty of your blood, as the verses before my text
assure me. Verse 8 : " When I say to the wicked
man, 0 wicked man, thou shalt surely die ; if thou
THE UNCONVERTED.
dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way,
that wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; but his
blood will I require at thine hand." You see, then,
though this be a rough and unwelcome doctrine, it
is such as we must preach, and you must hear. It
is easier to hear of hell than to feel it. If your ne-
cessities did not require it, we would not gall your
tender ears with truths that seem so harsh and griev-
ous. Hell would not be so full, if people were but
willing to know their case, and to hear and think
of it. The reason why so few escape it, is 'because
they strive not to enter in at the strait gate of con-
version, and go the narrow way of holiness while
they have time ; and they strive not, because they
are not awakened to a lively feeling of the danger
they are in ; and they are not awakened, because
they are loth to hear or think of it ; and that is
partly through foolish tenderness and carnal self-
love, and partly because they do not well believe the
word that threateneth it. If you will not thoroughly
believe this truth, methinks the weight of it should
force you to remember it, and it should follow you,
and give you no rest till you are converted. If you
had but once heard this word by the voice of an
angel, " Thou must be converted or condemned :
turn, or die ;" would it not sink into your mind, and
haunt you night and day ? so that in your sinning
you would remember it, as if the voice were still in
your ears, "Turn, or die I" 0 happy were your
B. CaU. 3
A CALL TO
soul if it might thus work with you, and never be
forgotten or let you alone till it have driven home
your heart to God. But if you will cast it out by
forgetfulness or unbelief, how can it work to your
conversion and salvation ? But take this with you
to your sorrow, though you may put this out of your
mind you cannot put it out of the Bible, but there
it will stand as a sealed truth, which you shall ex-
perimentally know for ever, that there is no other
way but "turn, or die."
O what is the matter, then, that the hearts of sin-
ners are not pierced with such a weighty truth ? A
man would think now, that every unconverted soul
that hears these words should be pricked to the
heart, and think with himself, " This is my own
case," and never be quiet till he found himself con-
verted. Believe it, this drowsy, careless temper will
not last long. Conversion and condemnation are
both of them awakening things, and one of them will
make you feel ere long. I can foretell it as truly as
if I saw it with my eyes, that either grace or hell
will shortly bring these matters to the point, and
make you say, "■ What have I done ? what a foolish
wicked course have I taken?" The scornful and
the stupid state of sinners will last but a little while :
as soon as they either turn or die, the presumptuous
dream will be at an end, and then their senses and
feeling will return.
THE UNCONVERTED.
But I foresee there are two things that are likely
to harden the unconverted and make me lose all my
labor, unless they can be taken out of the way ;
namely, the misunderstanding of those two words,
the wicked and turn. Some will think with them-
selves, " It is true, the wicked must turn or die ;
but what is that to me, I am not wicked, though I
am a sinner as all men are." Others will think, "It
is true that we must turn from our evil ways, but
I am turned long ago ; I hope this is not now to
do." And thus while wicked men think they are
not wicked, but are already converted, we lose all
our labor in persuading them to turn. I shall there-
fore, before I go any further, tell you here who are
meant by the wicked, or who they are that must turn
or die ; and also what is meant by turning, or who
they are that are truly converted. And this I have
purposely reserved for this place, preferring the
method that fits my end. And
I. Here you may observe, that in the sense of the
text a wicked max and a converted man are con-
traries : no man is a wicked man that is converted ;
and no man is a converted man that is wicked ; so
that to be a wicked man and to be an unconverted
man is all one ; and therefore in dealing with one we
shall deal with both.
Before I can tell you what either wickedness or
conversion is, I must go to the bottom and take up
the matter from the beginning.
86
A CALL TO
It pleased the great Creator of the world to make
three sorts of living creatures. Angels he made pure
spirits without flesh, and therefore he made them
only for heaven, and not to dvrell on earth. Brutes
were made flesh -without immortal souls, and there-
fore they were made only for earth, and not for
heaven. Man is of a middle nature, between both,
as partaking of both flesh and spirit, and therefore
he was made both for heaven and earth. But as
his flesh is made to be but a servant to his spirit, so
is he made for earth but as his passage or way to
heaven, and not that this should be his home or
happiness. The blessed state that man was made
for, was to behold the glorious majesty of the Lord,
and to praise him among his holy angels, and to
love him, and to be filled with his love for ever.
And as this was the end that man was made for, so
God gave him means that were fitted to the attain-
ing of it.
These means were principally two : 1 . The- right
inclination and disposition of the mind of man. 2.
The right ordering of his life and practice. For the
first, God suited the disposition of man unto his end,
giving him such knowledge of God as was fit for his
present state, and a heart disposed and inclined to
God in holy love. But yet he did not fix or confirm
him in this condition, but, having made him a free
agent, he left him to the exercise of his own free
will. For the second, God did that which belonged
THE L X CON VERTED.
3?
to him ; that is, he gave him a perfect law, requiring
him to continue in the love of God and perfectly to
obey him.
By the wilful breach of this law, man not only
forfeited his hopes of everlasting life, but also turned
his heart from God and fixed it on these lower fleshly
things, and thereby blotted out the spiritual image
of God from his soul ; so that man both fell short
of the glory of God, which was his end, and put
himself out of the way by which he should have
attained it, and this both as to the frame of his heart
and of his life. The holy inclination and love of his
soul to God he lost, and instead of it he contracted
an inclination and love to the pleasing of his flesh,
or carnal self, by earthly things ; growing strange
to God and acquainted with the creature. And the
course of his life was suited to the bent and incli-
nation of his heart ; he lived to his carnal self, and
not to God ; he sought the creature for the pleasing
of his flesh, instead of seeking to please the Lord.
With this nature or corrupt inclination we are all
now born into the world ; " for who can bring a
clean thing out of an unclean?" Job 14 : 4. As a
lion hath a fierce and cruel nature before he doth
devour ; and an adder hath a venomous nature be-
fore she stings : so in our infancv we have those sin-
ful natures or inclinations before we think, or speak,
or do amiss. And hence springeth all the sin of
our lives ; and not only so, but when God hath of
A CALL TO
his mercy provided us a remedy, even the Lord Je-
sus Christ, to be the Saviour of our souls and bring
us back to God again, we naturally love our present
state, and are loth to be brought out of it, and there-
fore are set against the means of our recovery : and
though custom hath taught us to thank Christ for
his good-will, yet carnal self persuades us to refuse
his remedies, and to desire to be excused when we
are commanded to take the medicines which he of-
fers, and are called to forsake all and follow him to
God and glory.
I pray you read over this leaf again, and mark it ,
for in these few words you have a true description
of our natural state, and consequently of a wicked
man ; for every man that is in the state of corrupt
nature is a wicked man, and in a state of death.
II. By this you are prepared to understand what
it is to be converted: to which end you must
further know, that the mercy of God, not willing
that man should perish in his sins, provided a rem-
edy, by causing his Son to take our nature, and be-
ing in one person God and man, to become a me-
diator between God and man ; and by dying for our
sins on the cross, to ransom us from the curse of
God and the power of the devil. And having thus
redeemed us, the Father hath delivered us into his
hands as his own. Hereupon the Father and the
Mediator do make a new law and covenant for man,
not like the first, which gave life to none but the
THE UNCONVERTED.
perfectly obedient, and condemned man' for eveiy
sin; but Christ bath made a hm of grace, or a
promise of pardon and everlasting life to all that, by
true repentance, and by faith in Christ, are converted
unto God : like an act of oblivion -which is made by
a prince to a company of rebels, on condition that
they will lay down their arms and come in and be
loyal subjects for the time to come.
But, because the Lord knoweth that the heart of
man is grown so wicked, that, for all this, men will
not accept of the remedy if they are left to them-
selves, therefore the Holy Ghost hath undertaken it
as his office to inspire the apostles, and seal the
Scriptures by miracles and wonders, and to illumi-
nate and convert the souls of the elect.
So by this much you see, that as there are three
persons in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, so each of these persons have their
several works, which are eminently ascribed to them.
The Father's works were, to create us, to rule us,
as his rational creatures, by the law of nature, and
judge us thereby; and in mercy to provide us a
Redeemer when we were lost ; and to send his Son,
and accept his ransom.
The works of the Son for us were these : to ran-
som and redeem us by his sufferings and righteous-
ness ; to give out the promise or law of grace, and
rule and judge the world as the Redeemer, on terms
of grace ; to make intercession for us, that the ben-
40
A CALL TO
efits of his death may be communicated ; and to
send the Holy Ghost, which the Father also doth by
the Son.
The works of the Holy Ghost for us are these : to
indite the Holy Scriptures by inspiring and guiding
the prophets and apostles, and sealing the word by
his miraculous gifts and works ; and illuminating and
exciting the ordinary ministers of the Gospel, and so
enabling them and helping them to publish that word ;
and by the same word illuminating and converting
the souls of men. So that as you could not have
been reasonable creatures if the Father had not cre-
ated you, nor have had any access to God if the Son
had not redeemed you, so neither can you have a
part in Christ or be saved except the Holy Ghost do
sanctify you.
So that by this time you may see , the several
causes of this work. The Father sendeth the Son ;
the Son redeemeth us and maketh the promise of
grace ; the Holy Ghost inditeth and sealeth this
Gospel ; the apostles are the secretaries of the Spirit
to write it ; the preachers of the Gospel to proclaim
it, and persuade men to obey it; and the Holy
Ghost doth make their preaching effectual, by open-
ing the hearts of men to entertain it. And all this
to repair the image of God upon the soul, and to
set the heart upon God again, and take it off from
the creature and carnal self to which it is revolted,
and so to turn the current of the life into a heavenly
THE UNCONVERTED.
41
course, which, before was earthly ; and this through
embracing Christ by faith, who is the Physician of
the soul.
By what I have said you may see what it is to be
wicked, and what it is to be converted ; which, I
think, will be yet plainer to you, if I describe them
as consisting of their several parts. A wicked man
may be known by these three things :
1. He is one who placeth his chief affections on
earth, and loveth the creature more than God, and
his fleshly prosperity above the heavenly felicity.
He savoreth the things of the flesh, but neither dis-
cerneth nor savoreth the things of the Spirit ; though
he will say that heaven is better than earth, yet he
doth not really so esteem it to himself. If he might
be sure of earth, he would let go heaven, and had
rather stay here than be removed thither. A life
of perfect holiness in the sight of God, dwelling in
his love and praising him for ever in heaven, is not
so pleasing to his heart as a life of health, and wealth,
and honor here upon earth. And though he falsely
profess that he loves God above all, yet indeed he
never felt the power of divine love within him, but
his mind is more set on the world or fleshly pleasures
than on God. In a word, whoever loves earth above
heaven, and fleshly prosperity more than God, is a
wicked unconverted man.
On the other hand, a converted man is illuminated
A CALL TO
to discern the loveliness of God, and so far believeth
the glory that is to be had with God, that his heart
is taken up with it and set more upon it than on any
thing in this world. He had rather see the face of
God, and live in his everlasting love and praise?,
than have all the wealth or pleasures of the world.
He seeth that all things else are vanity, and nothing
but God can fill the soul ; and therefore, let the world
go which way it will, he layeth up his treasures and
hopes in heaven, and for that he is resolved to let go
all. As the fire doth mount upward, and the nee-
dle that is touched with the loadstone still turns to
the north, so the converted soul is inclined unto God.
Nothing else can satisfy him : nor can he find any
content and rest but in his love. In a word, all that
are converted do esteem and love God better than
all the world, and the heavenly felicity is dearer to
them than their fleshly prosperity. The proof of
what I have said you may find in these places of
Scripture : Phil. 3 : 8-10 : Matt. 6:19-21; Colos.
3 : 1-4 ; Rom. 8 : 5-9, 18, 23 ; Psalms 73 : 25, 26.
2. A wicked man is one that makes it the princi-
pal business of his life to prosper in the world and
attain his fleshly ends. And though he may read,
and hear, and do much in the outward duties of re-
ligion, and forbear disgraceful sins, yet this is all but
by the by, and he never makes it the principal busi-
ness of his life to please God and attain everlasting
glory, but puts off God with the leavings of the
THE UNCONVERTED.
43
world, and gives him no more service than the flesh
can spare, for he will not part with all for heaven.
On the contrary, a converted man is one that
makes it the principal care and business of his life
to please God and to be saved, and takes ail the
blessings of this life but as accommodations in his
journey towards another life, and useth the creature
in subordination to God : he loves a holy life, and
longs to be more holy ; he hath no sin but what he
hateth, and longeth, and prayeth, and striveth to be
rid of. The drift and bent of his life is for God, and
if he sin, it is contraiy to the very bent of his heart
and life ; and therefore he riseth again and lamenteth
it, and dares not wilfully live in any known sin.
There is nothing in this world so dear to him but he
can give it up to God, and forsake it "for him and
the hopes of glory. All this you may see in Col.
3:1-5; Matt. 6: 20, 33; Luke 18:22, 23, 29;
and 14 : 18, 24, 26, 27 ; Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5 : 24 ;
Luke 12 : 21, etc.
3. The soul of a wicked man did never truly dis-
cern and relish the mystery of redemption, nor
thankfully entertain an offered Saviour, nor is he
taken up with the love of the Redeemer, nor willing
to be ruled by him as the Physician of his soul, that
he may be saved from the guilt and power of his
sins, and recovered to God ; but his heart is insensi-
ble of this unspeakable benefit, and is quite against
the healing means by which he should be recovered.
44
A CALL TO
Though he may be willing to be outwardly religious,
vet he never resigned up his soul to Christ and to
the motions and conduct of his word and Spirit.
On the contrary, the converted soul having felt
himself undone by sin, and perceiving that he hath
lost his peace with God and hopes of heaven, and is
in danger of everlasting misery, doth thankfully en-
tertain the tidings of redemption, and believing in
the Lord Jesus as his only Saviour, resigns himself
up to him for wisdom, righteousness, sanctiflcation,
and redemption. He takes Christ as the life of his
soul, and lives by him, and uses him as a salve for
every sore, admiring the wisdom and love of God in
his wonderful work of man's redemption. In a
word, Christ doth even dwell in his heart by faith,
and the life that he now liveth, is by the faith of the
Son of God, that loved him, and gave himself for
him ; yea, it is not so much he that liveth, as Christ
in him. For these, see John 1 : 11, 12 ; and 3:19,
20 ; Rom. 8:9; Phil. 3 : 7-10 ; Gal. 2 : 20 ; John
15 : 2-4; 1 Cor. 1 : 20; 2:2.
You see now, in plain terms from the word of
God, who are the wicked and who are the converted.
Ignorant people think that if a man be no swearer,
nor curser, nor railer, nor drunkard, nor fornicator,
nor extortioner, nor wrong any body in his dealings,
and if he come to church and say his prayers, he
cannot be a wicked man. Or if a man that hath
been guilty of drunkenness, swearing, or gaming, oi
THE UNCONVERTED.
45
the like vices, do but forbear them for the time to
come, they think that this is a converted man. Others
think if a man that hath been an enemy, and scorner
at godliness, do but approve it, and join himself to
those that are godly, and be hated for it by the
wicked, as the godly are, that this must needs be a
converted man. And some are so foolish as to think
that they are converted by taking up some new and
false opinion, and falling into some dividing party.
And some think, if they have but been affrighted by
the fears of hell, and had convictions of conscience,
and thereupon have purposed and promised amend-
ment, and taken up a life of civil behavior and out-
ward religion, that this must needs be true conver-
sion. And these are the poor deluded souls that
are like to lose the benefit of all our persuasions ;
and when they hear that the wicked must turn or
die, they think that this is not spoken to them, for
they are not wicked, but are turned already. And
therefore it is that Christ told some of the rulers of
the Jews who were more grave and civil than the
common people, that "publicans and harlots go into
the kingdom of God before them." Matt. 21 : 31.
Not that a harlot or gross sinner can be saved with-
out conversion ; but because it was easier to make
these gross sinners perceive their sin and misery, and
the necessity of a change, than the more civil sort,
who delude themselves by thinking that they are
converted already, when they are not.
46
A CALL TO
0 sirs, conversion is another kind of work than
most are aware of. It is not a small matter to bring
an earthly mind to heaven, and to show man the
amiable excellence of God, till he be taken up in
such love to liini as can never be quenched ; to break
the heart for sin, and make him fly for refuge to
Christ, and thankfully embrace him as the life of his
soul ; to have the very drift and bent of the heart
and life changed ; so that a man renounceth that
which he took for his felicity, and placeth his felicity
where he never did before, and lives not to the same
end, and drives not on the same design in the world,
as he formerly did. In a word, he that is in Christ
is a " new creature : old things are passed away ;
behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5 : 17.
He hath a new understanding, a new will and reso-
lution, new sorrows, and desires, and love, and de-
light ; new thoughts, new speeches, new company —
if possible — and a new conversation. Sin, that be-
fore was a jesting matter with him, is now so odious
and terrible to him that he flies from it as from death.
The world, that was so lovely in his eyes, doth now
appear but as vanity and vexation : God, that was
before neglected, is now the only happiness of his
soul : before, he was forgotten, and every lust pre-
ferred before him ; but now he is set next the heart,
and all things must give place to him ; the heart is
taken up in the attendance and observance of him,
is grieved when he hides his face, and never thinks
THE UNCONVERTED.
47
itself well without him. Christ himself, that was
wont to be slightly thought of, is now his only hope
and refuge, and he lives upon him as on his daily
bread ; he cannot pray without him, nor rejoice with-
out him, nor think, nor speak, nor live without him.
Heaven itself, that before was looked upon but as a
tolerable reserve, which he hoped might serve his
turn better than hell when he could not stay any
longer in the world, is now taken for his home, the
place of his only hope and rest, where he shall see,
and love, and praise that God who hath his heart
already. Hell, that did seem before but as a bug-
bear to frighten men from sin, doth now appear to
be a real misery that is not to be ventured on nor
jested with. The works of holiness, of which be-
fore he was weary, and which he thought unneces-
sary, are now both his recreation and his business.
The Bible, which was before to him but almost as a
common book, is now as the law of God ; as a letter
written to him from heaven and subscribed with the
name of the Eternal Majesty ; it is the rule of his
thoughts, and words, and deeds ; the commands are
binding, the threats are dreadful, and the promises
of it speak life to his soul. The godly, that seemed
to him but like other men, are now the most excel-
lent and happy on earth. And the wicked, that
were his play-fellows, are now his grief ; and he that
could laugh at their sins is more ready now to weep
for their sin and misery, and to say with those of
48
A CALL TO
old, Psalm 16:3; 15:4; Phil. 3 : 18, " But to the
saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in
whom is all my delight." " In whose eyes a vile
person is contemned; but he honoreth them that
fear the Lord : he that sweareth to his own hurt,
and changeth not." "For many walk, of whom I
have told you often, and now tell you even weeping,
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. "
In short, he hath a new end in his thoughts, and
a new way in his endeavors, and therefore his heart
and life are new. Before, his carnal self was his
end, and his pleasure and worldly profit and credit
were his way ; and now, God and everlasting glory
are his end, and Christ, and the Spirit, and word,
and ordinances ; holiness to God, and righteousness
and mercy to men, these are his way. Before, self
was the chief ruler, to which the matters of God
and conscience must stoop and give place ; and now
God, in Christ, by the Spirit, word, and ministry, is
the chief ruler, to whom both self and all the matters
of self must give place. So that this is not a change
in one, or two, or twenty points, but in the whole
soul, and in the very end and bent of the conversa-
tion. A man may step out of one path into another,
and yet have his face the same way, and be still go-
ing towards the same place ; but it is another matter
to turn quite back, and take his journey quite the
contrary way, to a contrary place. So it is here : a
man may turn from drunkenness, and forsake other
THE UNCONVERTED.
49
gross disgraceful sins, and set upon some duties of
religion, and yet be still going to the same end as
before, loving his carnal self above all, and giving it
still the government of his soul; but vrhen he is
converted, this self is denied and taken down^ and
God is set up, and his face is turned the contrary
way ; and he that before was addicted to himself,
and lived to himself, is now, by sanctincation, de-
voted to God, and liveth unto God. Before, he
asked himself what he should do with his time, his
talents, and his estate, and for himself he used them ;
but now he asketh God what he shall do with them,
and useth them for him. Before, he would please
God so far as might accord with the pleasure of his
flesh and carnal self, but not to any great displeasure
of them ; but now he will please God, let rlesh and
self be never so much displeased. This is the great
change that God will make upon all that shall be
saved.
You can say that the Holy Ghost is our sancti-
fier ; but do you know what sanctincation is ? Why,
this is what I have now opened to you ; and every
man and woman in the world must have this, or be
condemned to everlasting misery. They must turn
or die.
Do you believe all this, sirs, or do you not ? Surely,
you dare not say you do not ; for it is past all doubt
or denial. These are not controversies, where one
'earned pious man is of one mind and another of
B. Call. 4
50
A CALL TO
another ; where one party saith this, and the other
saith that. Every sect among us that deserve to be
called Christians are all agreed in this that I have
said ; and if yon will not believe the God of truth,
and that in a case where every sect and party do
believe him, you are utterly inexcusable.
But if you do believe this, how comes it to pass
that you live so quietly in an unconverted state ? Do
you think that you are converted ? and can you find
this wonderful change upon your souls ? Have you
been thus bom again, and made new? Are not
these strange matters to many of you, and such as
you never felt within yourselves ? You cannot tell
the day or week of your change, or the very sermon
that converted you, yet do you find that the work is
done, that such a change indeed there is, and that
you have such hearts as are before described ? Alas !
the most follow their worldly business, and little
trouble their minds with such thoughts. And if
they be but restrained from scandalous sins, and can
say, " I am no whoremonger, nor thief, nor curser.
nor swearer, nor tippler, nor extortioner ; I go to
church, and say my prayers they think that this is
true conversion, and that they shall be saved as well
as any. Alas ! this is foolish cheating of yourselves.
This is too much contempt of an endless glory, and
too gross neglect of your immortal souls. Can you
make so light of heaven and hell ?
Your body will shortly lie in the dust, and angels
THE UNCONVERTED.
51
or devils will presently seize upon your souls ; and
every man or woman of you all will shortly be among
other company,, and in another case than now you
are. You will dwell in these houses but a little
longer ; you will work in your shops and fields but
a little longer ; you will sit in these seats and dwell
on this earth but a little longer ; you will see with
these eyes, and hear with these ears, and speak with
these tongues but a little longer, till the resurrec-
tion-day ; and can you make shift to forget this ? 0
what a place will you shortly be in of joy or tor-
ment ! 0 what a sight will you shortly see in heaven
or hell ! 0 what thoughts will shortly fill your
hearts with unspeakable delight or horror ! What
work will you be employed in ! to praise the Lord
with saints and angels, or to cry out in fire unquench-
able with devils ; and should all this be forgotten ?
And all this will be endless, and sealed up by an
unchangeable decree. Eternity, eternity will be the
measure of your joys or sorrows : and can this be
forgotten ? And all this is true, sirs, most certainly
true. When you have gone up and down a little
longer, and slept and awakened a few times more,
vcu will be dead and gone, and find all true that now
I tell you : and yet can you now so much forget it ?
You shall then remember that you had this call, and
that, this day, in this place, you were reminded of
these things, and you will perceive them to be mat-
ters a thousand times more important than either you
A CALL TO
or I could here conceive ; and yet shall they be now
so much forgotten ?
Beloved friends, if the Lord had not awakened me
to believe and lay to heart these things myself, I
should have remained in a dark and selfish state, and
have perished for ever ; but if he have truly made
me sensible of them, it will constrain me to compas-
sionate you as well as myself. If your eyes were
so far opened as to see hell, and you saw your neigh-
bors that were unconverted dragged thither with
hideous cries : though they were such as you ac-
counted honest people on earth, and as feared no
such danger themselves ; such a sight would make
you go home and think of it, and think again, and
make you warn all about you, as that lost worldling,
Luke 16:28, would have had his brethren warned,
lest they come to that place of torment.
Faith is a kind of sight ; it is the eye of the soul,
the evidence of things not seen. If I believe God,
it is next to seeing; and therefore, I beseech you,
excuse me if I be half as earnest with you about
these matters as if I had seen them. If I must die
to-morrow, and it were in my power to come again
from another world and tell you what I had seen,
would you not be willing to hear me ? and would
you not believe and regard what I should tell you ?
If I might preach one sermon to you after I am dead,
and have seen what is done in the world to come,
would you not have me plainly speak the truth, and
THE UNCONVERTED.
S3
would you not crowd to hear me, and would you not
lay it to heart ? But this must not be ; God hath
his appointed way of teaching you by Scripture and
ministers, and he will not humor unbelievers so far
as to send men from the dead to them and alter his
established way : if any man quarrel with the sun,
God will not humor him so far as to set up a clearer
light. Friends, I beseech you, regard me now as
you would do if I should come from the dead to
you; for I can give you as full assurance of the
truth of what I say to you as if I had been there
and seen it with my eyes : it is possible for one from
the dead to deceive you ; but Jesus Christ can never
deceive you ; the word of God delivered in Scrip-
ture, and sealed by miracles and holy workings of
the Spirit, can never deceive you. Believe this, or
believe nothing. Believe and obey this, or you are
undone.
Now, as ever you believe the word of God, and
as ever you care for the salvation of your souls, let
me beg of you this reasonable request, and I be-
seech you deny me not : That you would now re-
member what has been said, and enter into an earnest
search of your hearts, and say to yourselves, Is it
so indeed ; must I turn or die ? Must I be converted
or condemned ? It is time for me then to look about
me before it be too late. O why did I not look af-
ter this before now ? Why did I venturously put
off or slumber over so great a business ? Was I
A CALL TO
awake, or in my senses ? 0 blessed God, what a
mercy is it that thou didst not cut off my life all this
while, before I had any certain hope of eternal life !
God forbid that I should neglect this work any
longer. What state is my soul in ? Am I converted,
or am I not ? Was ever such a change or work done
upon my soul ? Have I been illuminated by the word
and Spirit of the Lord to see the odiousness of sin,
the need of a Saviour, the love of Christ, and the
excellences of God and glory ? Is my heart broken
or humbled within me for my former life ? Have I
thankfully entertained my Saviour and Lord that
offered himself with pardon and life for my soul ?
Do I hate my former sinful life and the remnant of
every sin that is in me ? Do I fly from them as my
deadly enemies ? Do I give up myself to a life of
holiness and obedience to God ? Do I love it and
delight in it ? Can I truly say that I am dead to
the world and carnal self, and that I live for God and
the glory which he hath promised ? Hath heaven
more of my esteem and affection than earth ? And
is God the dearest and highest in my soul ? Once,
I am sure, I lived principally to the world and flesh,
and God had nothing but some heartless services,
which the world could spare, and which were the
leavings of the flesh. Is my heart now turned an-
other way ? Have I a new design and a new end,
and a new train of holy affections ? Have I set my
hope and heart in heaven ? And is it the scope, and
THE UNCONVERTED.
55
design, and bent of ray heart to get well to heaven,
and see the glorious face of God, and live in his
everlasting love and praise ? And when I sin, is it
against the habitual bent and design of my heart ?
And do I conquer all gross sins, and am I weary and
willing to be rid of my infirmities ? This is the state
of converted souls. And thus it must be "with me,
or I must perish. Is it thus with me indeed, or is it
not ? It is time to get this doubt resolved, before
the dreadful Judge resolve it. I am not such a
stranger to my own heart and life, but I may some-
what perceive whether I am thus converted or not :
if I be not, it will do me no good to natter my soul
with false conceits and hopes. I am resolved no
more to deceive myself, but endeavor to know truly
whether I be converted or not : that if I be, I may
rejoice in it, and glorify my gracious Lord, and com-
fortably go on till I reach the crown : and if I am
not, that I may set myself to beg and seek after the
grace that should convert me, and may turn without
any more delay. For, if I find in time that I am
out of the way, by the help of Christ I may turn and
be recovered ; but if I stay till either my heart be
forsaken of God in blindness and hardness, or till I
be snatched away by death, it is then too late. There
is no place for repentance and conversion then : I
know it must be now or never.
Sirs, this is my request to you, that you will but
take your hearts to task, and thus examine them till
58
A GALL TO
Ton see, if it may be, whether you are converted or
not. And if you cannot find it out by your own
endeavors, go to your ministers, if they be faith-
ful and experienced men, and desire their assistance.
The matter is great ; let not bashfulness nor careless-
ness hinder you. They are set over you to advise
you for the saying of your souls, as physicians advise
you for the curing of your bodies. It undoes many
thousands that they think they are in the way to sal-
vation when they are not ; and think that they are
converted when it is no such thino*. And then when
o
we call to them daily to turn, they go away as they
came, and think that this concerns not them ; for
they are turned already, and hope they shall do well
enough in the way that they are in, at least if they
pick the fairest path, and avoid some of the foulest
steps, when, alas ! all this while they live but to the
world and flesh, and are strangers to God and eter-
nal life, and are quite out of the way to heaven.
And all this because we cannot persuade them to a
few serious thoughts of their condition, and to spend
a few hours in the examining of then* states.
Are there not many self-deceivers who hear me
this day, that never bestowed one hour, or quarter
of an hour, in all their lives, to examine their souls,
and try whether they are truly converted or not ?
0 merciful God, that will care for such wretches
that care no more for themselves, and that will do
so much to save them from hell and help them to
THE UNCONVERTED.
57
heaven, who will do so little for it themselves ! If
all that are in the way to hell and in the state of
damnation did but know it, they durst not continue
in it. The greatest hope that the devil hath of
bringing you to damnation without a rescue, is by
keeping you blindfold and ignorant of your state,
and making you believe that you may do well enough
in the way that you are in. If you knew that you
were out of the way to heaven, and were lost for
ever if you should die as you are, durst you sleep
another night in the state that you are in ? Durst
you live another day in it ? Could you heartily
laugh or be merry in such a state ? "What ! and not
know but you may be snatched away to hell in an
hour ? Sure it would constrain you to forsake your
former company and courses, and to betake your-
selves to the ways of holiness and the communion
of the saints. Sure it would drive you to cry to
God for a new heart, and to seek help of those that
are fit to counsel you. There are none of you surely
that care not for being damned. Well, then, I be-
seech you, presently make inquiry into your hearts,
and give them no rest till you find out your con-
dition, that if it be good, you may rejoice in it, and
go on; and if it be bad, you may presently look
about you for recovery, as men that believe they
must turn or die. What say you, sirs, villi you re-
solve and promise to be at thus much labor for your
own souls ? Will you now enter upon this self- ex-
58 • A CALL TO
animation ? Is my request unreasonable ? Your
consciences know it is not. Kesolve on it, then, be-
fore you stir ; knowing how much it concerneth your
souls. I beseech you, for the sake of that God that
doth command you, at whose bar you will all shortly
appear, that you do not deny me this reasonable
request. For the sake of those souls that must turn
or die, I beseech you deny me not; but make it
your business to understand your own condition and
build upon sure ground, and know whether you are
converted or not ; and venture not your souls on
negligent security.
But perhaps you will say, "What if we should
find ourselves yet unconverted, what shall we do
then ?" This question leads me to my second Doc-
trine, which will do much to the answering of it, to
which I now proceed.
DOCTRINE II.
Tt is the promise of God, that the wicked shall live, if they
will but turn — unfeignedly and thoroughly turn.
The Lord here professeth that this is what he
takes pleasure in, that the wicked turn and live.
Heaven is made as sure to the converted, as hell is
to the unconverted. Turn and live, is as certain a
truth as turn or die. God was not bound to pro-
THE UNCONVERTED.
59
vide us a Saviour, nor open to us a door of hope,
nor call us to repent and turn, when once we had
cast ourselves away by sin. But he hath freely done
it to magnify his mercy. Sinners, there are none
of you that shall have cause to go home and say I
preach desperation to you. Do we use to shut the
door of mercy against you ? 0 that you would not
shut it against yourselves ! Do we use to tell you
that God will have no mercy on you, though you
turn and be sanctified ? When did you ever hear a
preacher say such a word ? You that cavil at the
preachers of the Gospel for desiring to keep you
out of hell, and say that they preach desperation ;
tell me, if you can, when did you ever hear any so-
ber man say that there is no hope for you, though
you repent and be converted ? No, it is the direct
contrary that we daily proclaim from the Lord : that
whoever is born again, and by faith and repentance
doth become a new creature, shall certainly be saved ;
and so far are we from persuading you to despair of
this, that we persuade you not to make any doubt
of it. It is life, not death, that is the first part of
our message to vou : our commission is to offer sal-
vation, certain salvation, a speedy, glorious, everlast-
ing salvation to every one of you ; to the poorest
beggar as well as the greatest lord ; to the worst of
you, even to drunkards, swearers, worldlings, thieves,
yea, to the despisers and reproachers of the holy
way of salvation.
m
A C A L L TO
We are commanded by our Lord and Master to
offer you a pardon for all that is past, if toii will
but now at last return and live ; we are commanded
to beseech and entreat you to accept the offer, and
return ; to tell you what preparation is made by
Christ; what mercy stays for you; what patience
waiteth on you; what thoughts of kindness God
hath towards you ; and how happy, how certainly
and unspeakably happy you may be if you will.
We hare indeed also a message of wrath and death,
yea, of a twofold wrath and death ; but neither of
them is our principal message. We must tell you
of the wrath that is on you already, and the death
that you are born under, for the breach of the law
of works ; but this is only to show you the need of
mercy, and to provoke you to esteem the grace of
the Redeemer. And we tell vou nothing but the
truth, which you must know ; for who will seek for
physic that knows not that he is sick ? Our telling
you of your misery is not that which makes you
miserable, but would drive you to seek for mercy.
It is you that have brought this death upon your-
selves. We tell you also of another death, even
remediless, and much greater torment, that will fall
on those who will not be converted.
But as this is true, and must be told you, so it is
but the last and saddest part of our message. We
are first to offer you mercy, if you will turn ; and it
is only those that will not turn, nor hear the voice
THE UN CONVERTED.
61
of mercy, to whom we must foretell damnation. If
you will but cast away your transgressions, if you
will delay no longer, but come away at the call of
Christ, and be converted, and become new creatures,
we have not a word of damning wrath or death to
speak against you. I do here, in the name of the
Lord of life, proclaim to you all that hear me this
day, to the worst of you, to the greatest, to the old-
est sinner, that you may have mercy and salvation,
if you will but turn. There is mercy in God, there
is sufficiency in the satisfaction of Christ, the prom-
ise is free, and full, and universal ; you may have
life, if you will but turn. But then, as you love your
souls, remember what turning it is that the Scripture
speaks of. It is not to mend the old house, but to
pull down all, and build anew on Christ, the Rock
and sure foundation. It is not to mend somewhat
in a carnal course of life, but to mortify the flesh and
live after the Spirit. It is not to serve the flesh
and the world in a more reformed way, without any
scandalous disgraceful sins, and with a certain kind
of religiousness ; but it is to change your master,
and your works, and end ; and to set your face the
contrary way, and do all for the life that you never
saw, and dedicate yourselves and all you have to
God. This is the change that must be made, if you
will live.
Yourselves are witnesses now, that it is salvation,
and not damnation, that is the great doctrine I preach
62
A CALL TO
to you, and the first part of my message to you.
Accept of this, and we shall go no farther with you ;
for we would not so much as affright or trouble you
with the name of damnation without necessity.
But if you will not be saved, there is no remedy,
but damnation must take place ; for there is no mid-
dle place between the two ; you must have either
life or death.
And we are not only to offer you life, but to show
you the grounds on which we do it, and call you to
believe that God doth mean, indeed, as he speaks ;
that the promise is true, and extendeth conditionally
to you, as well as others ; and that heaven is no
fancy, but a true felicity.
If you ask, Where is our commission for this offer ?
Among a hundred texts of Scripture, I will show it
to you in these few :
You see it here in mv text and the following
verses, and in the 18th of Ezekiel, as plain as can
be spoken; and in 2 Cor. 5 : 17-21, you have the
very sum of our commission : ^ If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature : old things are passed
away ; behold, all things are become new. And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to him-
self by J esus Christ, and hath given to us the min-
istry of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputiag their
trespasses to them ; and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. Xow, then, we are ambas^a-
THE UNCONVERTED.
dors for Christ, as though. God did beseech you by
us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
unto God. For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin ; that we might be made the right-
eousness of God in him." So Mark 16:15, 16 :
" Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel
to every creature. He that believe th," that is, with
such a converting faith as is expressed, " and is bap-
tized, shall be saved ; and he that belie veth not, shall
be damned." And Luke 24 : 46, 47 : " Thus it be-
hooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day; and that repentance," which is conver-
sion, " and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations." And Acts 5 : 30, 31 :
" The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye
slew and hanged on a tree : him hath God exalted
with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour,
to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."
And Acts 13 : 38, 39 : " Be it known unto you there-
fore, men and brethren, that through this Man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and by
him all that believe are justified from all things, from
which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."
And lest you think this offer is restrained to the
Jews, see Gal. 6:15: " For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth any thing, nor roicircumcision,
but a new creature." And Luke 14 : 17 : " Come,
for all things are now ready."
You see by this time that we are commanded to
64
A CALL TO
offer life to you all, and to tell you from God, that
if you will turn, you may lire.
Here you may safely trust your souls ; for the
love of God is the foundation of tins offer, John
3:16, and the blood of the Son of God hath pur-
chased it ; the faithfulness and truth of God is en-
gaged to make the promise good ; miracles oft sealed
the truth of it ; preachers are sent through the
world to proclaim it ; and the Spirit doth open the
heart to entertain it, and is itself the earnest of the
full possession : so that the truth of it is past con-
troversy, that the worst of you all, and every one
of you, if you will but be converted, may be saved.
Indeed, if you will believe that you shall be saved
without conversion, then you believe a falsehood:
and if I should preach that to you, I should preach
a lie. This were not to believe God, but the devil
and your own deceitful hearts. God hath his prom-
ise of life, and the devil hath his promise of life.
God's promise is, Turn and live. The devil's prom-
ise is, you shall live whether you turn or not. The
words of God are, as I have showed you, " Except
ye be converted, and become as little children, ye
cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt.
18:3. " Except a man be bom again, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:3, 5.
" "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord."
Heb. 12:14. The devil's word is, "You may be
saved without being born again and converted ; you
THE UNCONVERTED.
So
may get to heaven well enough without being holy,
God doih but frighten you ; he is more merciful
than to do as he saith, he will be better to you than
his word." And, alas, the greatest part of the world
believe this word of the devil before the word of
God ; just as our sin and misery first came into the
world. God said to our first parents, "If ye eat,
ye shall die and the devil contradicted him, and
said, "Ye shall not die:" and the woman believed
the devil before God. So now the Lord saith, Turn,
or die : and the devil saith, You shall not die, if you
do but cry for God's mercy at last, and give over
the acts of sin when you can practise it no longer.
And this is the word that the world believes. 0
heinous wickedness, to believe the devil before God.
And yet that is not the worst ; but blasphemously
they call this believing and trusting in God, when
they put him in the shape of Satan, who was a liar
from the beginning ; and when they believe that the
word of God is a he, they call this trusting God;
and say they believe in him, and trust in liim for
salvation. Where did ever God say that the unre-
generate, unconverted, unsanctified, shall be saved ?
Show me such a word in Scripture. I challenge
you to do it. Why, this is the devil's word, and to
believe it is to believe the devil, and is the sin that
is commonly called presumption; and do you call
this believing and trusting in God ? There is enough
in the word of God to comfort and strengthen the
B. Call. 5
66
A CALL TO
hearts of the sanctified, but not a word to strengthen
the hands of wickedness, nor to give men the least
hope of being saved though they be never sanctified.
But if you will turn, and come into the way of
mercy, the mercy of the Lord is ready to entertain
you. Then trust in God for salvation, boldlv and
confidently ; for he is engaged by his word to save
you. He will be a father to none but his children ;
and he will save none but those that forsake the
world, the devil, and the flesh, and come into his
family to be members of his Son, and have commun-
ion with his saints. But if they will not come in,
it is the fault of themselves : his doors are open ; he
keeps none back ; he never sent such a message as
this to any of you: "It is now too late ; I will not
receive thee, though thou be converted." He might
have done so and done you no wrong ; but he did
not ; he doth not to this day. He is still ready to
receive you, if you were but ready unfeignedly, and
with all your hearts, to turn. And the fulness of
this truth will vet more appear in the two following
if . X X O
doctrines, to which I shall therefore next proceed
before I make any further application of this.
THE UNCONVERTED.
67
DOCTRINE III.
God taketh pleasure in men's conversion and salvation, but
not in their death or damnation. He had rather they would
turn and live, than go on and die.
" The Lord is long- suffering to us-ward," says the
apostle, "not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance." 2 Pet. 3 : 9.
He unf eigne dly willeth the conversion of all men,
even of those that never will be converted, but not
as absolute Lord with the fullest efficacious resolu-
tion, nor as a thing which he resolveth shall un-
doubtedly come to pass, or would engage all his
power to accomplish. It is in the power of a prince
to set a guard upon a murderer, to see that he shall
not murder, and be hanged ; but if, upon good rea-
son, he forbear this, and do but send to his subjects
to warn and entreat them not to be murderers, he
may well say that he would not have them murder
and be hanged ; he takes no pleasure in it, but rather
that they forbear and live, and if he do more for
some upon some special reason, he is not bound to
do so by all. The king may well say to all murder-
ers and felons in the land, " I have no pleasure in
your death, but rather that you would obey my laws
and live ; but if you will not, I am resolved, for all
this, that you shall die." The judge may truly say
to the murderer, "Alas, I have no delight in thy
death ; I had rather thou hadst kept the law and
A CALL TO
saved thy life ; but seeing thou hast not, I must con-
demn thee, or else I should be unjust."
So, though God have no pleasure in your damna-
tion, and therefore calls upon you to return and live,
yet he hath pleasure in the demonstration of his own
justice and the execution of his laws ; and therefore
he is, for all this, fully resolved, that if you will not
be converted, you shall be condemned. If God was
so much against the death of the wicked as that he
were resolved to do all that he can to hinder it, then
no man should be condemned ; whereas Christ tell-
eth you, that " narrow is the way that leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it." But so far God
is opposed to your damnation as that he will teach
you, and warn you, and set before you life and death,
and offer you your choice, and command his minis-
ters to entreat you not to destroy yourselves, but
accept his mercy, and so to leave you without ex-
cuse. But if this will not do, and if still you be
unconverted, he professeth to you that he is resolved
on your damnation, and hath commanded us to say
to you in his name, verse 8, " 0 wicked man, thou
shalt surely die !" And Christ hath little less than
sworn it, over and over, with a " verily, verily," that
except you be converted and bom again, ye cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 18:3;
John 3 : 3. Mark that he saith, "you cannot." It
is in vain to hope for it, and in vain to dream that
God is willing for it ; for it is a thing that cannot be
THE UNCONVERTED,
69
In a word, yon see the meaning of the text, that
God, the great Lawgiver of the world, doth take no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that
they turn and live ; though yet he be resolved that
none shall live but those that turn ; and as a judge,
ever delighteth in justice, and in manifesting his ha-
tred of sin, though not in the misery which sinners
have brought upon themselves, in itself considered.
And for the proofs of this point, I shall be very
brief in them, because I suppose you easily believe
it already.
1. The very gracious nature of God proclaimed,
Exotl. 34:6, 7, "And the Lord passed by before
him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, mer-
ciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty," and many
other passages may assure you of this, that he hath
no pleasure in your death.
2. If God had more pleasure in thy death than
in thy conversion and life, he would not have so fre-
quently commanded thee in his word to turn; he
would not have made thee such promises of life if
thou wilt but turn; he would not have persuaded
thee to it by so many reasons. The tenor of his
Gospel proveth the point.
3. And his commission that he hath given to the
ministers of the Gospel doth fully prove it. If God
7Cj
A CALL TO
had taken more pleasure in thy damnation than in
thy conversion and salvation, he would never have
charged us to offer vou niercv, and to teach vou the
way of life, both publicly and privately ; and to en-
treat and beseech you to turn and live ; to acquaint
you with your sins and foretell you of your danger;
and to do all that possibly we can for your con-
version, and to continue patiently so doing, though
you should hate or abuse us for our pains. Would
God have done this, and appointed his ordinances
for your good, if he had taken pleasure in your
death ?
4. It is proved also by the course of his provi-
dence. If God had rather you were damned than
converted and saved, he would not second his word
with his works, and entice you, by his daily kindness,
to himself, and give you all the mercies of this life,
which are means "to lead you to repentance," Rom.
2 : 4, and bring you so often under his rod, to bring
you to your senses ; he would not set so many ex-
amples before your eyes, no, nor wait on you so pa-
tiently as he does from day to day and year to year.
These are not signs of one that taketh pleasure in
your death. If this had been his delight, how easily
could he have had thee long ago in hell ! How of:,
before this, could he have cut thee down in the midst
of thy sins with a curse, or oath, or lie in thy mouth,
in thy ignorance, and pride, and sensuality ! When
thou wert last in thy drunkenness, or last deriding
THE UNCONVERTED.
the ways of God, how easily could he have stopped
thy breath, and tamed thee with his plagues, and
made thee sober in another world ! Alas ! how
small a matter is it for the Almighty to silence the
tongue of the profanest railer, and tie the hands of
the most malicious persecutor, or calm the fury of
the bitterest of his enemies, and make them know
that they are but worms.
If he should but frown upon thee thou wouldst
drop into thy grave. If he gave commission to one
of his angels to go and destroy ten thousand sinners,
how quickly would it be done ! How easily can he
lay thee upon the bed of languishing, and make thee
lie groaning there in pain, and make thee eat the
words of reproach which thou hast spoken against
his servants, his word, his worship, and his holy ways,
and make thee send to beg their prayers whom thou
didst despise in thy presumption ! How easily can
he lay that flesh under pains and groans, and make
it too weak to hold thy soul, and make it more loath-
some than the dung of the earth ! That flesh which
now must have what it loves, and must not be dis-
pleased though God be displeased ; and must be
humored in meat, and drink, and clothes, whatever
God say to the contrary, how quickly would the
frowns of God consume it ! When thou wast pas-
sionately defending thy sin, and quarrelling with them
that would have drawn thee from it, and showing
thy spleen against the reprover, and pleading for
n
A CALL TO
the works of darkness ; how easily could God have
snatched thee away in a moment, and set thee be-
fore his dreadful Majesty, where thou shouldst see
ten thousand times ten thousand glorious angels
waiting on his throne, and have called thee there to
plead thy cause, and asked thee "What hast thou
now to say against thy Creator, his truth, his servants,
or his holy ways ? Xow plead thy cause, and make
the best of it thou canst. Xow what canst thou say
in excuse of thy sins? Xow give account of thy
worldliness and fleshly life, of thy time, of all the
mercies thou hast had." 0 how thy stubborn heart
would have melted, and thy proud looks be taken
down, and thy countenance be appalled, and thy
stout words turned into speechless silence, or dread-
ful cries, if God had but set thee thus at his bar, and
pleaded his own cause with thee, which thou hast
here so maliciously pleaded against ! How easily
can he at any time say to thy guilty soul, Come
away, and live in that flesh no more till the resurrec-
tion, and it cannot resist ! A word of his mouth
would take off the poise of thy present life, and then
all thy parts and powers would stand still ; and if
he say unto thee, Live no longer, or, Live in hell,
thou couldst not disobey.
But God hath yet done none of this, but hath pa-
tiently forborne thee, and mercifully upheld thee, and
given thee that breath which thou didst breathe out
against him, and given those mercies which thou didst
THE U X CONVERTED .
sacrifice to thy flesh, and afforded thee that provision
which thou didst use to satisfy thy greedy throat :
he gave thee every minute of that time which thou
didst waste in idleness, or drunkenness, or worldli-
ness ; and doth not all his patience and mercy show
that he desired not thy damnation ? Can the candle
burn without the oil ? Can your houses stand with-
out the earth to bear them ? Xo more can you live
an hour without the support of God. And why did
he so long support thy life, but to see when thou
wouldst bethink thee of the folly of thy ways, and
return and live ? Will any man purposely put arms
into his enemy's hands to resist him, or hold a can-
dle to a murderer that is killing his children, or to an
idle servant that plays or sleeps the while ? Surely
it is to see whether thou wilt at last return and live,
that God hath so long waited on thee.
o. It is further proved by the sufferings of his
Son, that God taketh no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. "Would he have ransomed them from death
at so dear a rate? Would he have astonished an-
gels and men by his condescension ? Would God
have dwelt in flesh, and have come in the form of a
servant, and have assumed humanity into one per-
son with the Godhead ; and would Christ have lived
a life of suffering, and died a cursed death for sin-
ners, if he had rather taken pleasure in their death ?
Suppose you saw him but so busy in preaching and
healing of them, as you find him in Mark 3 : 21 ; or
n
A CALL TO
so long In fasting, as in Matt. 4 ; or all night in
prayer, as in Luke 6:12; or praying with drops of
blood trickling from him instead of sweat, as Luke
22 : 24 ; or suffering a cursed death upon the cross,
and pouring out his soul as a sacrifice for our sins —
would you have thought these the signs of one that
delighted in the death of the wicked ?
And think not to extenuate it by saying that it
was only for his elect : for it was thy sin, and the
sin of all the world, that lay upon our Redeemer ;
and his sacrifice and satisfaction is sufficient for all,
and the fruits of it are offered to one as well as an-
other. But it is true, that it was never the intent
of his mind to pardon and save any that would not,
by faith and repentance, be converted. If you had
seen and heard him weeping and bemoaning the state
of disobedience in impenitent people, Luke 19:41,
42, " And when he was come near, he beheld the
city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known,
even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from
thine eyes" — or complaining of their stubbornness,
as Matt. 23 : 37, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often
would I have gathered thy children together^ even
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not!" or if you had seen and heard
him on the cross, praying for his persecutors, "Fa-
ther, forgive them, for they know not what they do,"
would you have suspected that he had delighted in
THE UNCONVERTED,
75
the death of the wicked, even of those that perish
by their wilful unbelief? When God hath so loved
the world — not only loved, but so loved — as to give
his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him, by an effectual faith, should not perish, but
have everlasting life, I think he hath hereby proved,
against the malice of men and devils, that he takes
no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but had
rather that they would "turn and live."
6. If all this will not yet satisfy you, take His
own word that he knoweth best his own mind, or at
least believe his oath: but this leads me to the
fourth doctrine.
DOCTRINE IV.
The Lord hath confirmed it to us by his Oath, that he hath no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he turn
and live ; that he may leave man no pretence to question
the truth of it.
If you dare question his word, I hope you dare
not question his oath. As Christ hath solemnly pro-
tested that the unregenerate and unconverted cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 18:3; John
3:3; so God hath sworn that his pleasure is not in
their death, but in their conversion and life. And as
the apostle saith, Heb. 6 : 16-18, because he can
swear by no greater, he sware by himself. " For
men verily swear by the greater : and an oath for con-
76
A CALL TO
firmation is to them an end of strife. Wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of
promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed
it by an oath ; that by two immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might
have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to
lay hold on the hope set before us ; which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stead-
fast." If there be any man that cannot reconcile
this truth with the doctrine of predestination, or the
actual damnation of the wicked, that is his own
ignorance ; he hath no pretence left to question or
deny therefore the truth of the point in hand ; for
this is confirmed by the oath of God, and therefore
must not be distorted, to reduce it to other points :
but doubtful points must rather be reduced to it,
and certain truths must be believed to agree with it,
though our shallow minds hardly discern the agree-
ment.
I do now entreat thee, if thou be an unconverted
sinner that nearest these words, that thou wouldst
ponder a little upon the forementioned doctrines,
and bethink thyself awhile who it is that takes pleas-
ure in thy sin and damnation. Certainly it is not
God ; he hath sworn for his part that he takes no
pleasure in it. And I know it is not the pleasing
of him that you intend. You dare not say that
you drink, and swear, and neglect holy duties, and
THE UNCONVERTED.
77
quench the motions of the Spirit to please God.
That were as if you should reproach the prince, and
break his laws, and seek his death, and say you did
all this to please him.
Who is it, then, that takes pleasure in your sin and
death ? Not any that bear the image of God, for
they must be like-minded to him. God knows, it is
small pleasure to your faithful teachers to see you
serve your deadly enemy, and madly venture your
eternal state and wilfully run into the flames of hell.
It is small pleasure to them to see upon your souls
(in the sad effects) such blindness, and hard-heart-
edness, and carelessness, and presumption ; such
wilfulness in evil, and such unteachableness and ob-
stinacy against the ways of life and peace. They
know these are marks of death, and of the wrath of
God, and they know, from the word of God, what
is like to be the end of them, and therefore it is no
more pleasure to them than to a tender physician to
see the plague-marks broke out upon his patient.
Alas, to foresee your everlasting torments, and know
not how to prevent them ! To see how near you are
to hell, and we cannot make you believe it and con-
sider it. To see how easily, how certainly you
might escape, if we knew but how to make you
willing. How fair you are for everlasting salvation,
if you would but turn and do your best, and make
it the care and business of your lives ! But you will
not do it : if our lives lay on it, we cannot persuade
¥8
A CALL TO
you to it. We study day and night what to say to
you that may convince and persuade you, and yet it
is undone : we lay before you the word of God, and
show you the very chapter and verse where it is
written, that you cannot be saved except you be
converted ; and yet we leave the most of you as we
find you. We hope you will believe the word of
God though you believe not us, and regard it when
we show you the plain Scripture for it ; but we hope
in vain, and labor in vain, as to any saving change
upon your hearts ! And do you think that this is a
pleasant thing to us ? Many a time, in secret prayer,
we complain to God with sad hearts,
"Alas, Lord, we have spoken to them in thy
name, but they little regard us ; we have told them
what thou bidst us tell them concerning the danger
of an unconverted state, but they do not believe us :
we have told them that thou hast protested that
there is no peace to the wicked, Isa. 57 : 21 ; but
the worst of them all will scarcely believe that they
are wicked. We have showed them thy word, where
thou hast said, that if they live after the flesh they
shall die, Rom. 8:13; but they say they will believe
in thee, when they will not believe thee; and that
they will trust in thee, when they give no credit to
thy word ; and when they hope that the threaten-
ings of thy word are false, they will yet call this a
hoping in God ; and though we show them where
thou hast said, that when a wicked man dieth, all
THE UNCONVERTED.
his hopes perish, yet we cannot persuade them from
their deceitful hopes. Pro v. 11:7. We tell them
what a base, unprofitable thing sin is ; but they love
it/and therefore will not leave it. We tell them how
dear they buy this pleasure, and what they must pay
for it in everlasting torment : and they bless them-
selves, and will not believe it, but will do as the most
do ; and because God is merciful they will not be-
lieve him, but will venture their souls, come what
will. We tell them how ready the Lord is to receive
them, and this doth but make them delay their re-
pentance and be bolder in their sin. Some of them
say they purpose to repent, but they are still the
same ; and some say they do repent already, while
yet they are not converted from their sins. We ex-
hort them, we entreat them, we offer them our help,
but we cannot prevail with them ; but they that
were drunkards, are drunkards still ; and they that
were voluptuous flesh-pleasing wretches, are such
still ; and they that were worldlings, are worldlings
still ; and they that were ignorant and proud and
self- conceited, are so still. Few of them will see
and confess their sin, and fewer will forsake it, but
comfort themselves that all men are shiners, as if there
were no difference between a converted sinner and
an unconverted. Some of them will not come near
us when we are willing to instruct them, but think
they know enough already, and need not our instruc-
tion ; and some of them will give us the hearing, and
80
A CALL TO
do#what they list; and most of them are like dead
men that cannot feel ; so that when we tell them of
matters of everlasting consequence, we cannot get a
word of it to their hearts. If we do not obey them,
and humor them in doing all that they would have
us, though never so much against the word of God,
they will hate us, and rail at us ; but if we beseech
them to confess, and forsake their sins, and save
their souls, they will not do it. They would have
us disobey God and damn our own souls to please
them ; and yet they will not turn and save their own
souls to please God. They are wiser in their own
eyes than all their teachers ; they rage and are con-
fident in their own way, and if we are ever so anx-
ious we cannot change them. Lord, this is the case
of our miserable neighbors, and we cannot help it :
we see them ready to drop into hell, and we cannot
help it ; we know if they would unfeignedly turn,
they might be saved, but we cannot persuade them ;
if we would beg it of them on our knees, we cannot
persuade them to it ; if we would beg it of them
with tears, we cannot persuade them; and what
more can we do?"
These are the secret complaints and moans that
many a poor minister is compelled to make. And
do you think that he hath any pleasure in this ? Is
it a pleasure to him to see you go on in sin, and
cannot stop you ? to see you so miserable, and can-
not so much as make you sensible of it ? to see you
THE UNCONVERTED.
51
merrv when you are not sure to be an hour out of
hell? to think what you must for ever suffer, be-
cause you will not turn ? and to think what an ever-
lasting life of glory you wilfully despise and cast
away? What sadder thing can you bring to their
hearts, and how can you devise to grieve them more ?
Who is it, then, that you please by your sin and
death ? It is none of your godly friends. Alas, it
is the grief of their souls to see your misery, and
they lament you many a time when you give them
little thanks for it, and when you have not hearts to
lament yourselves.
Who is it,. then, that takes pleasure in your sin ?
1. The devil indeed takes pleasure in your sin and
death ; for this is the very end of all his temptations ;
for this he watches night and day; you cannot de-
vise to please him better than to go on in sin. How
glad is he when he sees thee going into the alehouse,
or other sin, and when he heareth thee curse, or
swear, or rail ! How glad is he when he heareth
thee revile the minister that would draw thee from
thy sin and help to save thee ! these are his delight.
2. The wicked are also delighted in it; for it is
agreeable to their nature.
3. But I know, for all this, that it is not the pleas-
ing of the devil that you intend, even when you
please him ; but it is your own flesh, the greatest
and most dangerous enemy, that you intend to please.
It is the flesh that would be pampered, that would
B. Call. G
63
A CALL TO
be pleased in meat, and drink, and clothing ; that
would be pleased with company, and pleased m
applause and credit with the world, and pleased in
sports, and lusts, and idleness ; this is the gulf that
devoureth all. This is the very god that you serve,
for the Scripture saith of such, that their bellies are
their god. Phil. 3 : 19. But I beseech you, stay a
little and consider the business.
Question 1. Should your flesh be pleased before
your Maker ? Will you displease the Lord, and
displease your teacher, and your godly friends, to
please your brutish appetites or sensual desires ? Is
not God woithy to be the ruler of your flesh ? If he
shall not rule it, he will not save it ; you cannot in
reason expect that he should.
Question 2. Your flesh is pleased with your sin,
but is your conscience pleased ? Doth not it grudge
within you, and tell you sometimes that all is not
well, and that your case is not so safe as you make
it to be ; and should not your souls and consciences
be pleased before your corruptible rlesh ?
Question 3. But is not your flesh preparing for
its own displeasure also ? It loves the bait, but
doth it love the hook? It loves the strong drink
and sweet morsels ; it loves its ease, and sports, and
memment ; it loves to be rich and well-spoken of by
men, and to be somebody in the world ; but doth
it love the curse of God? Doth it love to stand
trembling before his bar, and to be judged to ever-
THE UNCONVERTED.
18
lasting fire ? Doth it love to be tormented with the
devils for ever ? Take all together ; for there is no
separating sin and hell but only by faith and true
conversion ; if you will keep one, you must have the
other. If death and hell be pleasant to thee, no
wonder then if you go on in sin ; but if they be
not, as I am sure they are not, then what if sin
were ever so pleasant, is it worth the loss of life
eternal ? Is a little drink, or meat, or ease ; is the
good word of sinners, is the riches of this world to
be valued above the joys of heaven? Or are they
worth the sufferings of eternal fire? Sirs, these
questions should be considered before you go any
further, by every man that hath reason to consider,
and that believes he hath a soul to save or lose.
Well, the Lord here sweareth that he hath no
pleasure in your death, but rather that you would
turn and five ; if yet you will go on and die rather
than turn, remember it was not to please God that
you did it : it was to please the world, and to please
yourselves. And if men will damn themselves to
please themselves, and run into endless torments for
delight, and have not the sense, the heart, the grace,
to hearken to God or man that would reclaim them,
what remedy is there, but they must take what they
get by it, and repent of it in another manner, when
it is too late ? Before I proceed any further in the
application I shall consider the next doctrine, which
gives me a fuller ground for it.
A GALL TO
DOCTRINE V.
So earnest is God for the conversion of sinners that he doub-
leth his commands and exhortations, with vehemency —
Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?
This doctrine is the application of the former, by
way of exhortation, and as such I shall handle it.
Is there an unconverted sinner that heareth these
vehement words of God ? Is there a man or wo-
man in this assembly that is yet a stranger to the
renewing, sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost ? It
is a happy assembly if it be not so with the most.
Hearken, then, to the voice of your Maker, and turn
to him by Christ without delay. Would you knovr
the will of God ? Why, this is his will, that you
presently turn. Shall the living God send so ear-
nest a message to his creatures, and should they not
obey ?
Hearken, then, all you that live after the flesh : the
Lord that gave thee thy breath and being hath sent
a message to thee from heaven ; and this is his mes-
sage, Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. Shall the voice of
the eternal Majesty be neglected? If he do but
terribly thunder, thou art afraid. 0 but this voice
doth more nearly concern thee. If he did but tell
thee thou shalt die to-morrow, thou wouldst not
make light of it. 0 but this word concerneth thy
T*HE UNCONVERTED.
life or death everlasting. It is both, a command and
an exhortation. As if he had said to thee, " I charge
thee, upon the allegiance that thou owest to me, thy
Creator and Redeemer, that thou renounce the flesh,
the world, and the devil, and turn to me, that thou
mayest live. I condescend to entreat thee, as thou ,
either lovest or fearest him that made thee ; as thou
lovest thine own life, even thine everlasting life, turn
and live : as ever thou wouldst escape eternal mis-
ery, turn, turn, for why wilt thou die?" And is
there a heart in man, in a reasonable creature, that
can once refuse such a message, such a command,
such an exhortation as this ? 0 what a thing, then,
is the heart of man !
Hearken, then, all ye that love yourselves, and all
that regard vour own salvation ; here is the most
joyful message that was ever sent to the ears of man :
" Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?" You are not
yet shut up under desperation. Here is mercy
offered you; turn, and you shall have it. 0 sirs,
with what glad and joyful hearts should you receive
these tidings ! I know this is not the first time that
you have beard it ; but how have you regarded it,
or how do you regard it now ? Hear, all you igno-
rant, careless sinners, the word of the Lord. Hear,
all you worldlings, you sensual flesh-pleasers ; you
gluttons, and drunkards, and whoremongers, and
swearers ; you railers and backbiters, slanderers and
liars — Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?
80
A CALL TO
Hear, all you cold and outside professors, and all
that are strangers to the life of Christ, and never
knew the power of his cross and resurrection, and
never felt your hearts warmed with his love, and live
not on him as the strength of your souls — " Turn
ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?"
Hear, all that are void of the love of God, whose
hearts are not towards him, nor taken up with the
hopes of glory, but who set more by your earthly
prosperity and delights than by the joys of heaven;
all you that are religious but a little by the by, and
give God no more than your flesh can spare ; that
have not denied your carnal selves, and forsaken
all that you have for Christ, in the estimation and
grounded resolution of your souls, but have some
one thing in the world so dear to you that you can-
not spare it for Christ, if he required it, but will
rather venture on his displeasure than forsake it —
" Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?"
If you never heard it, or observed it before, re-
member that you were told from the word of God
this day, that if you will but turn, you may live;
and if you will not turn, you shall surely die.
What now will you d- >, sirs ? What is your reso-
lution ? Will you turn, or will you not ? Halt not
any longer between two opinions. If the Lord be
God, follow him; if your flesh be God, then serve
it still. If heaven be better than earth and fleshly
pleasures, come away, then, and seek a better coun-
THE UNCONVERTED.
try, and lay up your treasure where rust and moths
do not corrupt, and thieves cannot break through
and steal ; and be awakened at last, with all your
might to seek the kingdom that cannot be moved,
Heb. 12 : 28, and to employ your lives on a higher
design, and turn the stream of your cares and la-
bors another way than formerly you have done.
But if earth be better than heaven, or will do more
for you, or last you longer, then keep it and make
your best of it, and -follow it still. Sirs, are you
resolved what to do ? If you be not, I will set a
few more moving considerations before you, to see
if reason will make you resolve.
I. Consider what preparations mercy hath made
for your salvation ; and what pity it is that any man
should be damned after all this. The time was,
when the flaming sword was in the way, and the
curse of God's law would have kept thee back if
thou hadst been never so willing to turn to God.
The time was when thyself, and all the friends that
thou hadst in the world, could never have produced
thee the pardon of thy sins past, though thou hadst
never so much lamented and reformed them. But
Christ hath removed this impediment, by the ran-
som of his blood. The time was, that God was
wholly unreconciled, as being not satisfied for the
violation of his law ; but now he is so far satisfied
and reconciled, as that he hath made thee a free act
of oblivion, and a free deed of the gift of .Christ and
A CALL T O
life, and offereth it to thee, and entreateth thee to
accept it; and it may be thine if thou wilt. For
"he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,
and hath committed to us the word of reconcilia-
tion/' 2 Cor. 5 : 18, 19. Sinners, we too are com-
manded to deliver this message to you all, as from
the Lord : " Come, for all tilings are ready." Luke
14:17. Are all things ready, and are you unready ?
God is ready to entertain you, and pardon all that
you have done against him, if you will but come.
As long as you have sinned, as wilfully as you have
sinned, as heinously as you have sinned, he is ready
to cast all behind his back, if }-ou will but come.
Though you have been prodigals, and run away from
God, and have stayed away so long, he is ready
even to meet you, and embrace you in his arms, and
rejoice in your conversion, if you will but turn.
Even the worldlings and drunkards will find God
ready to bid them welcome, if they will but come.
Doth not this turn thy heart within thee? 0 sin-
ner ! if thou hadst a heart of flesh, and not of stone
in thee, methinks this should melt it. Shall the
dreadful infinite Majesty of heaven even wait for thy
returning, and be ready to receive thee, who hast
abused him, and forgotten him so long1 ? Shall he
delight in thy conversion, that might at any time
glorify his justice in thy damnation ? and yet doth it
not melt thy heart within thee, and art thou not yet
ready to come in ? Hast thou not as much reason
THE UNCONVERTED.
89
to be ready to come as God hath to invite thee and
bid thee welcome ?
But that is not all : Christ hath died on the cross,
and made such a way for thee to the Father, that,
on his account, thou mayest be welcome, if thou
wilt come. And yet art thou not ready ?
A pardon is already expressly granted, and offered
thee in the Gospel. And yet art thou not ready ?
The ministers of the Gospel are ready to assist
thee, to instruct thee, pray for thee And yet art
thou not ready ?
All that fear God about thee are ready to rejoice
in thy conversion, and to receive thee into the com-
munion of saints, and to give thee the right hand of
fellowship, yea, though thou hadst been one that
had been cast out of their society : they dare not
but forgive where God forgiveth, when it is manifest
to them by thy confession and amendment ; they
dare not so much as reproach thee with thy former
sins*, because they know that God will not upbraid
thee with them. If thou hadst been never so scan-
dalous, if thou wouldst but heartily be converted
and come in, they would not refuse thee, let the
world say what they would against it. And are all
these ready to receive thee, and yet art thou not
ready to come in ?
Yea, heaven itself is ready : the Lord will receive
thee into the glory of his saints. Vile as thou hast
been, if thou wilt be but cleansed thou mayest have
90
A CA LL TO
a place before his throne ; his angels will be ready-
to guard thy soul to the place of joy if thou do but
unfeignedly come in. And is God ready, the sacri-
fice of Christ ready, the promise ready, and pardon
ready ? Are ministers ready, and the people of God
ready, and heaven itself ready ? and angels ready ?
and all these but waiting for thy conversion ; and
yet art thou not ready ? What ! not ready to live,
when thou hast been dead so long ? not ready to
come to thy right understanding, as the prodigal is
said to " come to himself," Luke 15 : 17, when thou
hast been beside thyself so long ? Not ready to be
saved, when thou art even ready to be condemned ?
Art thou not ready to lay hold on Christ, that would
deliver thee, when thou art even ready to sink into
damnation ? Art thou not ready to be saved from
hell, when thou art even ready to be cast remediless
into it ? Alas, man ! dost thou know what thou do-
est ? If thou die unconverted there is no doubt to
be made of thy damnation; and thou art not sure
to live an hour. And yet art thou not ready to turn
and to come in ? O miserable wretch ! Hast thou
not served the flesh and the devil long enough ? Yet
hast thou not enough of sin ? Is it so good to thee,
or so profitable for thee ? Dost thou know what it
is, that thou wouldst yet have more of it ? Hast
thou had so many calls, and so many mercies, and
so many warnings, and so many examples ? Hast
thou seen so many laid in the grave, and yet art
THE UN CONVERTED.
91
thou not ready to let go thy sins and come to Christ ?
What, after so many convictions and pangs of con-
science, after so many purposes and promises, art
thou not yet ready to turn and live ? 0 that thy
eyes, thy heart were opened to know how fair an
offer is now made to thee ! and what a joyful mes-
sage it is that we are sent on, to bid thee come, for
all things are ready !
II. Consider also, what calls thou hast to turn
and live. How many, how loud, how earnest, how
dreadful: and yet what encouraging, joyful calls!
For the principal inviter is God himself. He that
commandeth heaven and earth, commands thee to
turn, and that presently, without delay. He com-
mands the sun to run its course, and to rise upon
thee every morning ; and though it be so glorious
an orb, and many times bigger than all the earth,
yet it obeyeth him, and faileth not one minute of its
appointed time. He commandeth all the planets
and the orbs of heaven, and they obey. He com-
mandeth the sea to ebb and flow, and the whole
creation to keep its course, and all obey him ; the
angels of heaven obey his will, when he sends them
to minister to such worms as we on earth, Heb.
1 : 14 ; and yet if he command but a sinner to turn,
he will not obey him. He only thinks himself wiser
than God, and he cavils and pleads the cause of sin,
and will not obey. If the Lord Almighty say the
word, the heavens and all therein obey him ; but if
A CALL TO
he call a drunkard out of an alehouse, he will not
obey : or if he call a worldly, fleshly sinner to deny
himself, and mortify the flesh, and set his heart upon
a better inheritance, he will not obey.
If thou hadst any love in thee, thou wouldst know
the voice, and say, O this is my Father's call ! how
can I find in my heart to disobey? For the sheep
of Christ "know and hear his voice, and they fol-
low him, and he giveth them eternal life." John
10:4, If thou hadst any spiritual life and sense in
thee, at least thou wouldst say, "This call is the
dreadful voice of God, and who dare disobey ? For
saith the prophet, 'The lion hath roared, who will
not fear V " Amos 3:8. God is not a man, that
thou shouldst dally and trifle with him. Remember
what he said to Paul' at his conversion, "It is hard
for thee to kick against the pricks" Acts 9:5.
Wilt thou yet go on and despise his word, and resist
his Spirit, and stop thine ears against his call ? who
is it that will have the worst of this ? Dost thou
know whom thou disobeyest, and contendest with,
and what thou art doing ? It were a far wiser and
easier task for thee to contend with the thorns, and
spurn them with thy bare feet, and beat them with
thy bare hands, or put thy head into the burning
fire. " Be not deceived ; God will not be mocked."
Gal, 6:7. Whoever else be mocked, God will not
be : you had better play with the fire in your thatch,
than with the fire of his burning wrath. " For our
THE UNCONVERTED.
03
God is a consuming fire." Heb. 12 : 29. 0 how
unmeet a match art thou for God ! " It is a fearful
thing to fall into his hands." Heb. 10 : 31. And
therefore it is a fearful thing to contend with him
or resist him. As you love your own souls, take
heed what you do : what will you say if he begin
in wrath to plead with you ? what will you do if
he take you once in hand ? Will you then strive
against his judgment, as now ye do against his grace ?
is Fury is not in me,13 saith the Lord, that is, I de-
light not to destroy you : I do it, as it were, unwill-
ingly ; but yet, " who would set the bi*iars and thorns
against me in battle ? I would go through them, I
would bum them together. Or let him take hold of
my strength, that he may make peace with me, and
he shall make peace with me" Isa. 27 : 4, 5. It is
an unequal combat for the briers and stubble to
make war with the fire. ' \
Thus you see who it is that calleth you, that would
move you to hear his call/^nd turn. So consider
also by what instruments, and^ how often, and how
earnestly he calls.
1. Every leaf of the blessed book of God hath,
as it were, a voice, and calls out to thee, Turn, and
live ; turn, or thou wilt die. ^Tbw canst thou open
it, and read a leaf, or hear a chapter, and not per-
ceive God bids thee turn ?'. . »
2. It is the voice of every, sermon that thou
nearest: for what else is the scope and drift of
94
A CALL TO
all, but to call, and persuade, and entreat thee *o
turn?
3. It is the voice of many a motion of the Spirit
that secretly speaks over these words again, and
urgeth thee to turn.
4. It is likely, sometimes it is the voice of thy own
conscience. Art thou not sometimes convinced that
all is not well with thee ? And doth not thy con-
science tell thee that thou must be a new man, and
take a new course, and often call upon thee to return ?
5. It is the voice of the gracious examples of the
godly. When thou seest them live a heavenly life,
and fly from the sin which is thy delight, this really
calls on thee to turn.
6. It is the voice of all the works of God : for
they also are God's books that teach thee this les-
son, by showing thee his greatness, and wisdom, and
goodness ; and calling thee to observe them, and ad-
mire the Creator. " The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work :
day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night show-
eth knowledge." Psa. 19 : 1,2. Every time the sun
riseth unto thee, it really calleth thee to turn, as if it
should say, " What do I travel and compass the world
for, but to declare to men the glory of their Maker,
and to light them to do his work ? And do I still
find thee doing the work of sin, and sleeping out thy
life in negligence ? Awake, thou that sleep est, and
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."
THE UNCONVERTED.
95
Ephes. 5 : 14. " The night is far spent, the day is
at liand ; it is now high time to awake out of sleep.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and
let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk hon-
estly, as in the day ; not in rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and
envying : but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof." Rom. 13 : 11-14. This text was the
means of Augustin's conversion.
7. It is the voice of every mercy thou dost pos-
sess. If thou couldst but hear and understand them,
they all cry out unto thee, Turn. Why doth the
earth bear thee, but to seek and serve the Lord ?
Why doth it afford thee its fruits, but to serve him ?
Why doth the air afford thee breath, but to serve
him ? Why do all the creatures serve thee with
their labors and their lives, but that thou mightest
devote them and thyself to the service of God?
Why doth he give thee time, and health, and strength,
but to serve him ? Why hast thou meat, and drink,
and clothes, but for his service? Hast thou any
thing which thou hast not received ? and if thou
didst receive them, it is reason thou shouldst bethink
thee from whom, and to what end and use thou
didst receive them. Didst thou never cry to him
for help in thy distress, and didst thou not then un-
derstand that it was thy part to turn and serve him,
if he would deliver thee ? He hath done his part,
3d
A CALL TO
and spared thee yet longer, and tried thee another,
and another year ; and yet dost thou not turn ? You
know the parable of the unfruitful fig-tree. Luke
13 : 6-9. When the Lord had said, " Cut it down,
why cumbereth it the ground ?" he was entreated
to try u one year longer, and then if it proved not
fruitful, to cut it down. Christ himself there makes
the application twice over, " Except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish." How many years hath
God looked for the fruits of love and holiness from
thee, and hath found none, and yet he hath spared
thee ! How many a time, by thy wilful ignorance,
and carelessness, and disobedience, hast thou pro-
voked justice to say, " Cut him down, why cumber-
eth he the ground ?" And yet mercy hath prevailed,
and patience hath forborne the fatal blow to this day.
If thou hadst the understanding of a man within
thee, thou wouldst know that all this calleth thee to
turn. "Dost thou think thou shalt still escape the
judgment of God ? or despisest thou the riches of
his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering ;
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance ? But, after thy hardness and impen-
itent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against
the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God, who will render to every man
according to his deeds. " Rom. 2 : 3-6.
8. Moreover, it is the voice of every affliction to
call thee to make haste and iuxk. Sickness and pain
THE UNCONVERTED.
93
cry, Turn: and poverty, and loss of friends, and
every twig of the chastening rod cry> Turn. And
yet wilt thou not hearken to the call ? These have
come near thee, and made thee feel ; they have
made thee groan, and can they not make thee turn ?
9. The very frame of thy nature and being itself
bespeaketh thy return. Why hast thou reason, but
to rule thy flesh, and serve thy Lord? Why hast
thou an understanding soul, but to learn and know
his will and do it ? Why hast thou a heart within
thee that can love, and fear, and desire, but that
thou shouldst fear him, and love him, and desire
after him ?
Lay all these together now, and see what should
be the issue. The holy Scriptures call upon thee to
turn ; the ministers of Christ call upon thee to turn ;
the Spirit cries, Turn ; thy conscience cries, Turn ;
the godly, by persuasion and example, cry, Turn;
the whole world, and all the creatures therein that
are presented to thy consideration, cry, Turn ; the
patient forbearance of God cries, Turn ; all the mer-
cies which thou receivest cry, Turn ; the rod of God's
chastisement cries, Turn ; thy reason and the frame
of thy nature bespeaks thy turning ; and so do all
thy promises to God : and yet art thou not resolved
to turn ?
III. Moreover, poor, hard-hearted sinner, didst
thou ever consider upon what terms thou standest
*11 this while with Him that calleth on thee to turn ?
B. Call. 7
m
A CALL TO
Thou art his own, and owest him thyself and all thou
hast ; and may he not command his own ? Thou
art his absolute servant, and should serve no other
master. Thou standest at his mercy, and thy life
is in his hand, and he is resolved to save thee upon
no other terms ; thou hast many malicious spiritual
enemies that would be glad if God would but for-
sake thee, and let them alone with thee, and leave
thee to their will : how quickly would they deal with
thee in another manner ! and thou canst not be de-
livered from them but by turning unto God. Thou
art fallen under his wrath by thy sin already ; and
thou knowest not how long his patience will yet wait.
Perhaps this is the last year, perhaps the last day.
His sword is even at thy heart while the word is in
thine ear ; and if thou turn not, thou art a dead and
undone man. "Were thy eyes but open to see where
thou standest, even upon the blink of hell, and to
see how many thousands are there already that did
not turn, thou wouldst see that it is time to look
about thee.
Well, sirs, look inwards now and tell me how your
hearts are affected with these offers of the Lord.
You hear what is his mind : he delighteth not in
your death ; he calls to you, Turn, turn : it is a fear-
ful sign if all this move thee not, or if it do but half
move thee ; and much more if it make thee more
careless in thy misery, because thou nearest of the
mercifulness of God. The working of the medicine
THE UNCONVERTED.
99
will partly tell us whether there be any hope of the
cure. 0 what glad tidings would it be to those that
are now in hell, if they had but such a message from
God ! What a joyful word would it be to hear this,
Turn and live ! yea, what a welcome word would it
be to thyself, when thou hadst felt that wrath of
God but an hour ! Or if, after a thousand or ten
thousand years' tonnent, thou couldst but hear such
a word from God, " Turn and live;" and yet wilt
thou neglect it, and suffer us to return without our
errand ?
Behold, sinners, we are sent here as the messen-
gers of the Lord to set before you life and death.
What say you ? which of them will you choose ?
Christ standeth, as it were, by thee, with heaven in
the one hand and hell in the other, and offereth thee
thy choice. Which wilt thou choose ? The voice
of the Lord maketh the rocks to tremble. Psa. 29.
And is it nothing to hear him threaten thee, if thou
wilt not ton ? Dost thou not understand and feel
this voice, " Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?" It
is the voice of love, of infinite love, of thy best and
kindest friend, as thou might est easily perceive by
the motion ; and yet canst thou neglect it ? It is
the voice of pity and compassion. The Lord seeth
whither thou art going better than thou dost, which
makes him call after thee, Turn, turn. He seeth
what will become of thee, if thou turn not. He
thinketh with himself, " Ah ! this poor sinner will
A CALL TO
cast himself into endless torments if lie do not turn.
I must in justice deal with him according to my
righteous law. ' ' And therefore he calleth after thee,
Turn, turn. 0 sinner ! if thou didst but know the
thousandth part as well as God doth the danger that
is near you, and the misery that you are running
irt:, we should have no more need to call after you
to turn.
Moreover, this voice that calleth to thee is the
same that hath prevailed with thousands already,
and called all to heaven that are now there ; and
they would not now for a thousand worlds that they
had made lio-ht of it, and not turned to God. ISTow
what are they possessing that turned at God's call ?
lS"ow they perceive that it was indeed the voice of
love, that meant them no more harm than their sal
vation ; and if thou wilt obey the same call thou
shalt come to the same happiness. There are mil-
lions that must for ever lament that they turned not ;
but there is never a soul in heaven that is sorry that
they were converted.
Well, sirs, are you yet resolved, or are you not ?
Do I need to say any more to you ? What will you
do ? Will you turn, or not ? Speak, man, in thy
heart to God, though you speak not out to me;
gpeak, lest he take thy silence for denial; speak
quickly, lest he never make thee the like offer more ;
speak resolvedly, and not waveringly, for he will
have no indifferent ones to be his followers. Say in
THE UNCONVERTED.
101
thine heart now, without any more delay, even be-
fore thou stir hence, " By the grace of God I am
resolved presently to turn. And because I know
my own insufficiency, I am resolved to wait on God
for his grace, and to follow him in his ways, and for-
sake my former courses and companions, and give up
myself to the guidance of the Lord."
Sirs, you are not shut up in the darkness of hea-
thenism, nor in the desperation of the damned. Life
is before you, and you may have it on reasonable
terms, if you will ; yea, on free cost, if you will ac-
cept it. The way of God lieth plain before you ; the
church is open to you. You may have Christy and
pardon, and holiness, if you will. What say you ?
Will you, or will you not ? If you say Nay, or say
nothing, and still go on, God is witness, and those
who hear me are witnesses, and your own consciences
are witnesses, how fair an offer you had this day.
Eemember, you might have had Christ, and would
not. Remember, when you have lost it, that you
might have had eternal life as well as others, and
would not ; and all this because you would not turn !
But let us come to the next doctrine, and hear
your reasons.
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A CALL TO
DOCTRINE VI,
The Lord condescendeth to reason the case with unconverted
sinners, and to ask them why they will die.
A straxge disputation it is, both as to the con-
troversy and as to the disputants.
I. The controversy, or question propounded is,
Why wicked men will destroy themselves ? or, Why
they will rather die than turn ; whether they have
anv sufficient reason for so doino* ?
II. The disputants are God and man : the most
holy God, and wicked unconverted sinners.
Is it not a strange thing, which God doth here
seem to suppose, that any man should be willing to
die and be damned ? yea, that this should be the
case of all the wicked ? that is, of the greatest part
of the world. But you will say, " This cannot be ;
for nature desireth the preservation and felicity of
itself ; and the wicked are more selfish than others,
and not less ; and therefore how can any man be
willing to be damned ?M
To which I answer : 1. It is a certain truth that
no man can be willing to bear any evil, as evil, but
only as it hath some appearance of good ; much less
can any man be willing to be eternally tormented.
Misery, as such, is desired by none. 2. But yet, for
all that, it is most true which God here teacheth us,
THE UNCONVERTED.
103
that the cause why the wicked die is, because they
will die. And this is true in several respects.
1. Because they will go the way that leads to hell,
although they are told by God and man whither it
goes and where it ends ; and though God hath so
often professed in his word, that if they hold on in
that way they shall be condemned ; and that they
shall not be saved unless they turn. " There is no
peace, saith my God, to the wicked." "The way of
peace they know not ; there is no judgment in their
goings ; they have made them crooked paths. Who-
soever goeth therein shall not know peace." Isa.
48 : 22 ; 57:21; 59 : 8. They have the word and
the oath of the living God for it, that if they will
not turn they shall not enter into his rest : and yet,
wicked they are, and wicked they will be, let God
and man say what they will : fleshly they are, and
fleshly they will be ; worldlings they are, and world-
lings they will be ; though God hath told them that
the love of the world is enmity to God, and that if
any man love the world (in that measure) the love
of the Father is not in him. James 4:4; 1 John,
2:15. So that, consequently, these men are willing
to be damned, though not directly ; they are willing
to walk in the way to hell, and love the certain cause
of their torment ; though they do not will hell itself,
and do not love the pain which they must endure.
Is not this the truth of your case, sirs? You
would not burn in hell, but you will kindle the Are
104
A CALL TO
by your sins, and cast yourselves into it ; you would
not be tormented with devils for ever, but you will
do that which will certainly procure it in spite of all
that can be said against it. It is just as if you would
say, " I will drink this poison, but yet I will not die.
I will cast myself headlong from the top of a stee-
ple, but yet I will not kill myself. I will thrust this
knife into my heart, but yet I will not take away my
life. I will put this fire into the thatch of my house,
but yet I will not burn it." Just so it is with wicked
men ; they will be wicked, and they will live after
the flesh and the world, and yet they would not be
damned. But do you not know that the means lead
to the end ? and that God hath, by his righteous law,
concluded that you must repent or perish ? He that
will take poison may as well say plainly, I will kil*
myself, for it will prove no better in the end ; though
perhaps he loved it for the sweetness of the sugai
that was mixed with it, and would not be persuaded
that it was poison, but that he might take it and do
well enough ; but it is not his conceits and confidence
that will save his life, So, if you will be drunkards,
or fornicators, or worldlings, or live after the flesh,
you may as well say plainly, We will be damned ;
for so you will be unless you turn. Would you not
rebuke the folly of a murderer that would say, I will
kill, but I will not be hanged, when he knows, that
if he does the one, the judge in justice will see that
the other be done ? If he say, I will murder, he
THE UNCONVERTED.
105
may as well say plainly, I will be hanged ; and if
you will go on in carnal life, you may as well say
plainly, We will go to Sell,
2. Moreover, the wicked will not use those means
without which there is no hope of their salvation.
He that will not eat. may as well say plainly, he will
not live, unless he can tell how to live without meat.
He that will not go his journey, may as well say
plainly, he will not come to the end. He that falls
into the water, and will not come out, nor suffer
another to help him out, may as well say plainlv, he
will be drowned. So, if you be carnal and ungodly,
and will not be converted, nor use the means by
which you should be converted, but think it more
ado than needs, you may as well say plainly you
will be damned ; for if you have found out a way
to be saved without conversion, you have done that
which was never done before.
3. Yea, this is not all ; but the wicked are un-
willing even to partake of salvation itself ; though
they may desire somewhat which they call by the
name of heaven, yet heaven itself, considered in the
true nature of the felicity, they desire not ; yea,
their hearts are quite against it. Heaven is a state
of perfect holiness, and of continual love and praise
to God, and the wicked have no heart to this. The
imperfect love, and praise, and holiness which is
here to be attained, they have no mind for ; much
less for that which is so much greater. The joys of
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A CALL TO
heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature that
the heart of the Tricked cannot truly desire them.
So that by this time you may see on what ground
it is that God supposeth that the Tricked Trill their
otvtl destruction. Thev Trill not turn, though they
must turn or die : they vrill rather venture on cer-
tain misery than be converted ; and then, to quiet
themselves in their sins, they vrill make themselves
believe that they shall nevertheless escape.
II. And as this controversy is matter of wonder,
in that men should be such enemies to themselves
as wflfaHy to cast away their souls, so are the dis-
putants too : that God should stoop so low as thus
co plead the case with men ; and that men should
be so strangely blind and obstinate as to need all
this in so plain a case ; yea, and to resist all this,
when their own salvation lieth upon the issue.
No wonder if they will not hear us that are men,
when they will not hear the Lord himself. As God
saith, when he sent the prophet to the Israelites,
" The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee ;
for they will not hearken unto me : for all the house
of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.'' Ezek.
3 : 7. ZS o wonder if they can plead against a min-
ister, or a godly neighbor, when they will plead
against the Lord himself, even against the plainest
passages of his word, and think that they have rea-
son on their side. TVhen they weary the Lord with
their words, they say, u Wherein have we wearied
THE UNCONVERTED.
107
him?" Mat 2:17. The priests that despised his
name durst ask, " Wherein have we despised thy
name?" And "when they polluted his altar, and
made the table of the Lord contemptible," they
durst say, "Wherein have we polluted thee?"
Mai. 1 : 6, 1. But " Woe unto him," saith the Lord,
"that striveth with his Maker ! Let the potsherds
strive with the potsherds of the earth : shall the
clay say to him that fashioneth it, What rnakest
thou?" Isa. 45:9.
Question. But why is it that God will reason the
case with man ?
Answer 1. Because man being a reasonable crea-
ture, is to be dealt with accordingly, and by reason
to be persuaded and overcome ; God hath therefore
endowed them with reason, that they might use it
for him. One would think a reasonable creature
should not go against the clearest, the greatest rea-
son in the world, when it is set before him.
2. At least, men shall see that God did require
nothing of them that was unreasonable ; but both in
what he commandeth them, and what he forbids
them, he hath all the right reason in the world on
his side ; and they have good reason to obey him —
but none to disobey him. And thus even the
damned shall be forced to justify God, and confess
that it was only reasonable that they should have
turned to him ; and they shall be forced to condemn
themselves, and confess that they had little reasGn
108
A CALL TO
to cast away themselves by the neglecting of his
grace in the day of their visitation.
Look up your best and strongest reasons, sinners,
if you will make good your way. You see now
with whom you have to deal. What sayest thou,
unconverted, sensual sinner? Darest thou venture
upon a dispute with God? Art thou able to con-
fute him ? Art thou ready to enter the lists ? God
asketh thee, "Why wilt thou die ? Art thou fur-
nished with a sufficient answer ? Wilt thou under-
take to prove that God is mistaken, and that thou
art in the right ?' O what an undertaking is that !
Why, either he or you are mistaken, when he is for
your conversion, and you are against it ; he calls
upon you to turn, and you will not; he bids you do
it presently, even to-day, while it is called to-day,
and you delay, and think it time enough hereafter.
He saith it must be a total change, and you must be
holy and new creatures, and born again ; and you
think that less may serve the turn, and that it is
enough to patch up the old man, without becoming
new. Who is in the right now ? God or you ?
God calleth you to turn, and to live a holy life, and
you will not. By your disobedient lives it appears
you will not. If you will, why do you not? Why
have you not done it all this while ? And why do
you not fall upon it yet ? Your wills have the
command of your lives. We may certainly conclude
THE UNCONVERTED.
109
that you are unwilling to turn, when you do not
turn. And why will you not ? Can you give any
reason for it that is worthy to be called a reason ?
I that am but a worm, your fellow- creature, of a
shallow capacity, dare challenge the wisest of you
all to reason the case with me while I plead my Ma-
ker's cause ; and I need not be discouraged when I
know I plead but the cause that God pleadeth, and
contend for him that will have the best at last.
Had I but these two general grounds against you, I
am sure that you have no good reason on your side.
1. I am sure it can be no good reason which is
against the God of truth and reason. It cannot be
light that is contrary to the sun. There is no know-
ledge in any creature but what it had from God ;
and therefore none can be wiser than God. It were
fatal presumption for the highest angel to compare
with his Creator ! What is it, then, for a lump of
earth, an ignorant sot, that knoweth not himself nor
his own soul, that knoweth but little of the things
which he seeth, yea, that is more ignorant than
many of his neighbors, to set himself against the
wisdom of the Lord ! It is one of the fullest dis-
coveries of the horrible wickedness of carnal men,
and the madness of such as sin, that so silly a mole
dare contradict his Maker, and call in question the
word of God : yea, that those people that are so
ignorant that they cannot give us a reasonable an-
swer concerning the very first principles of religion,
110
A CALL TO
are yet so wise in their own conceit that they dare
question the plainest truths of God, yea, contradict
them and cavil against them, when they can scarcely
speak sense, and will believe them no further than
agreeth with their foolish wisdom !
2. And as I know that God must needs be in the
right, so I know the case is so palpable and gross
which he pleadeth against, that no man can have
reason for it. Is it possible that a man can have
any reason to break his Maker's laws, and reason to
dishonor the Lord of glory, and reason to abuse the
Lord that bought him ? Is it possible that a man
can have any good reason to damn his own immortal
soul ? Mark the Lord's question, Turn ye, turn ye,
why will you die ? Is eternal death a thing to be
desired ? Are you in love with hell ? What rea-
son have you wilfully to perish ? If you think you
have some reason to sin, should you not remember
that death is the wages of sin, Rom. 6 : 23, and
think whether you have any reason to undo your-
selves, body and soul, forever ? You should not
only ask whether you love the adder, but whether
you love the sting ? It is such a thing for a man to
cast away his everlasting happiness, and to sin against
God, that no good reason can be given for it ; but
the more any one pleads for it, the more mad he
showeth himself to be. Had you a kingdom offered
you for every sin that you commit, it were not rea-
son but madness to accept it. Could you by every
THE UNCONVERTED.
Ill
sin obtain the highest thing on earth that flesh de-
sireth, it were of no considerable value to persuade
you in reason to commit it. If it were to please
your greatest or dearest friends, or to obey the
greatest prince on earth, or to save your lives, or to
escape the greatest earthly misery ; all these are of
no consideration to draw a man in reason to the
committing of one sin. If it were a right hand or a
right eye that would hinder your salvation, it is the
most gainful way to cast it away, rather than to go
to hell to save it ; for there is no saving a part when
you lose the whole. So exceedingly great are the
matters of eternity, that nothing in this world de-
serveth once to be named in comparison with them ;
nor can any earthly thing, though it were life, or
crowns, or kingdoms, be a reasonable excuse for the
neglect of matters of such high and everlasting con-
sequence. A man can have no reason to cross his
ultimate end. Heaven is such a thing, that if vou
lose it, nothing can supply the want, or make up the
less ; and hell is such a thing, that if you suffer it,
nothing can remove your misery, or give you ease
and comfort ; and therefore nothing can be a valu-
able consideration to excuse you for neglecting your
own salvation ; for, saith our Saviour, " What shall
it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul ?" Mark 8 : 36.
0 sirs, did you but know what matters they are
that we are now speaking to you of, you would have
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A CALL TO
other thoughts of these things. If the devil could
come to the saints in heaven that live in the siffht
and love of God, and should offer theni sensual
pleasures, or merry company, or sports to entice
them away from God and glory, I pray you tell me.
how do you think they would entertain the motion ?
2s ay, or if he should offer them to be kings on the
earth, do you think this would entice them down
from heaven ? 0 with what hatred and holy scorn
would they reject the motion ! and why should not
you do so, that have heaven open to your faith, if
you had but faith to see it ? There is not a soul in
hell but knows, by this time, that it was a mad ex-
change to let go heaven for fleshly pleasure ; and
that it is not a little mirth, or pleasure, or worldly
riches, or honor, or the good- will or word of men,
that will quench hell fire, or make him a gainer that
loseth his soul. 0 if you had heard what I believe,
if you had seen what I believe, and that on the
credit of the word of God, you would say there can
be no reason to warrant a man to destroy his soul ;
you durst not sleep quietly another night, before you
had resolved to turn and live.
If you see a man put his hand in the fire till it
burn off, you will marvel at it ; but this is a thing
that a man may have reason for, as Bishop Cranmer
had when he burnt off his hand for subscribing to
popery. If you see a man cut off a leg or an arm,
it is a sad sight ; but this is a thing that a man m-aj
THE UNCONVERTED.
113
have a good reason for, as many a man hath it done
to save his life. If you see a man give his body to
be tormented with scourges and racks, or to be
burned to ashes, and refuse deliverance when it is
offered, this is a hard case to flesh and blood ; but
this a man may have good reason for, as you may
see in Heb. 11 : 33-36, and as many a hundred mar-
tyrs have done. But for a man to forsake the Lord
that made him, and to run into the fire of hell when
he is told of it, and entreated to turn that he may
be saved — this is a thing that can have no reason in
the world to justify or excuse it. For heaven will
pay for the loss of any thing that we can lose to
obtain it, or for any labor which we bestow for it ;
but nothing can pay for the loss of heaven.
I beseech you now let this word come nearer to
your heart. As you are convinced that you have
no reason to destroy yourselves, so tell me what
reason have you to refuse to turn and live to God ?
What reason has the veriest worldling, or drunkard,
or ignorant, careless sinner of you all, why he should
not be as holy as any you know, and be as careful
for his soul as any other ? Will not hell be as intol-
erable to you as to others ? Should not your own
souls be as dear to you as theirs to them ? Hath
not God as much authority over you ? Why, then,
will you not become a sanctified people, as well as
they?
O sirs, when God bringeth the matter down to
E. Call. 8
114
A CALL TO
the very principles of nature, and shows that you
have no more reason to be ungodly than you have to
damn your own souls — if yet you will not understand
and turn, it seems a desperate case that you are in.
And now, either you have good reason for what
you do, or you have not : if not, will you go against
reason itself ? Will you do that which you have no
reason for ? But if you think you have a reason, pro-
duce it, and make the best of your matter. Reason
the case a little with me, your fellow- creature, which
is far easier than to reason the case with God ; tell
me, man, here before the Lord, as if thou wert to die
this hour, why shouldst thou not resolve to turn this
day, before thou stir from the place thou standest
in ; what reason hast thou to deny or to delay ? Hast
thou any reasons that satisfy thine own conscience
for it, or any that thou darest own and plead at the
bar of God ? If thou hast, let us hear them, bring
them forth and make them good. But, alas, what
poor stuff, what nonsense, instead of reasons, do we
daily hear from ungodly men ! But for the worth
of their immortal souls, I should be ashamed to
name them.
Objection 1. One saith, if none shall be saved
but such converted and sanctified ones as you tall*
of, heaven will be but empty : then God help a great
many !
Answer. Why, it seems you think that God doth '
not know, or else that he is not to be believed.
THE UNCONVERTED.
115
Measure not all by yourselves : God hath thousands
and millions of his sanctified ones ; but yet they are
few in comparison of the world, as Christ himself
hath told us. Matt. 7 : 13, 14. It better beseems
you to make that use of tins truth which Christ
teacheth you : " Strive to enter in at the strait gate ;
for strait is the gate and narrow is the way that
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it ; but
wide is the gate and broad is the way which leadeth
to destruction, and many there be that go in there-
at." Luke 13:22-24. "Fear not, little flock,"
saith Christ to his sanctified ones, " for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Luke 12 : 32.
Objection 2. I am sure, if such as I go to hell,
we shall have store of company.
Answer. And will that be any ease or comfort to
you ? Or do you think you may not have company
enough in heaven ? Will you be imdone for com-
pany, or will you not believe that God will execute
his threatenings because there be so many that are
guilty? These are all unreasonable conceits.
Objection 3. But all men are sinners, even the
best of you all.
Answer. But all are not unconverted sinners.
The godly live not in gross sins; and their very
infirmities are their grief and burden, which they
daily long, and pray, and strive to be rid of. Sin
hath no dominion over them.
116
A CALL TO
Objection 4. I do not see that professors are any
better than other men; they will overreach, and
oppress, and are as covetous as any.
Answer. Whatever hypocrites are, it is not so
with those that are sanctified. God hath thousands
and tens of thousands that are otherwise, though the
malicious world accuse them of what they can never
prove, and of that which never entered into their
hearts ; and commonly they charge them with heart
sins, which none can see but God, because they can
charge them with no such wickedness in their lives
as they are guilty of themselves.
Objection 5. But I am no whoremonger, nor
drunkard, nor oppressor ; and therefore why should
you call upon me to be converted ?
Answer. As if you were not born after the flesh,
and had not lived after the flesh as well as others !
Is it not as great a sin as any of these, for a man to
have an earthly mind, and to love the world above
God, and to have an unbelieving, unhumbled heart ?
Nay, let me tell you more, that many persons that
avoid disgraceful sins are as fast glued to the world,
and as much slaves to the flesh, and as strange to
God and averse to heaven, in their more civil course,
as others are in their more shameful, notorious sins.
Objection 6. But I mean nobody any harm, nor
do any harm ; and why, then, should God condemn
me?
Answer. Is it no harm to neglect the Lord that
THE UNCONVERTED,
117
made thee, and the work for which thou earnest into
the world, and to prefer the creature before the Cre-
ator, and to neglect grace that is daily offered thee ?
It is the depth of thy sinfulness to be so insensible
of it : the dead feel not that they are dead. If once
thou wen made alive, -thou wouldst see more amiss
in thyself, and marvel at thyself for making so light
of it.
Objection 7. I think you would make men mad,
under pretence of converting them : it is enough to
rack the brains of simple people to muse so much
on matters too high for them.
Answer 1. Can you be more mad than you are
already ? or, at least, can there be a more danger-
ous madness than to neglect vour everlasting welfare
and wilfully undo yourselves '?
2. A man is never truly in his right mind till he
be converted : he never knows God, nor knows sin,
nor knows Christ, nor knows the world, nor himself,
nor what his business is on earth, so as to set him-
self about it, till he be converted. The Scripture
saith that the wicked are unreasonable men, and
that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with
God. 2 Thess. 3 : 2 ; 1 Cor. 1:20; and Luke 15:17.
It is said of the prodigal, that when he came to him-
self he resolved to return. What a strange wisdom
is this ; men will disobey God, and run to hell, for
fear of being accounted fools !
3. What is there in the work that Christ calls you
118
A CALL TO
to, that should drive a man out of his senses ? Is
it loving God, and calling upon him, and comforta-
bly thinking of the glory to come, and the forsaking
of our sins, and loving one another, and delighting
ourselves in the service of God ? Are these such
things as should make men mad ?
4. And whereas you say that these matters are
too high for us ; you accuse God himself for making
this our work, and giving us his word, and com-
manding all that will be blessed to meditate on it
day and night. Are the matters which we are made
for, and which we live for, too high for us to med-
dle with ? This is plainly to unman us, and to make
beasts of us, as if we were like them that must med-
dle with no higher matters than what belongs to
flesh and earth. If heaven be too high for you to
think on and provide for, it will be too high for you
ever to possess.
5. If God should sometimes suffer any weak-
headed person to be distracted by thinking of eter-
nal things, this is because they misunderstand them,
and run without a guide ; and of the two, I had
rather be in the case of such a one, than of .the mad,
unconverted world, that take their distraction to be
their wisdom.
Objection 8. I do not think that God cares so
much what men think, or speak, or do, as to make
so great a matter of it.
Answer. It seems, then, you take the word of
THE UNCONVERTED,
119
God to be false : then what will you believe ? But
your own reason might teach you better, if you
believe not the Scriptures ; for you see God sets not
so light by us but that he vouchsafed to make us,
and still preserveth us, and daily upholdeth us, and
provideth for us ; and will any wise man make a cu-
rious frame for nothing ? Will you make or buy a
clock or watch, and daily look at it, and not care
whether it go true or false ? Surely, if you believe
not a particular eye of Providence observing your
hearts and lives, you cannot believe or expect any
particular Providence to observe your wants and
troubles, or to relieve you ; and if God had so little
care for you as you imagine, you would never have
lived till now ; a hundred diseases would have striven
which should first destroy you ; yea, the devils would
have haunted you, and fetched you away alive, as
the great fishes devour the less, and as ravenous
beasts and birds devour others. You cannot think
that God made man for no end or use, and if he
made him for any, it was surely for himself ; and can
you think he cares not whether his end be accom-
plished, and whether we do the work that we are
made for?
Yea, by this atheistical objection you suppose God
to have made and upheld all the world in vain ; for
what are all other lower creatures for, but for man ?
What doth the earth but bear us and nourish us,
and the beasts but serve us with their labors and
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A CALL TO
lives, and so of the rest ? And hath God made so
glorious a habitation, and set man to dwell in it, and
made all his servants ; and now doth he look for
nothing at his hands, nor care how he thinks, or
speaks, or lives ? This is most unreasonable.
Objection 9. It was a better world when men did
not make so much ado in religion.
Answer 1. It hath ever been the custom to praise
the times past; that world that you speak of was
wont to say it was a better world in their forefathers'
days ; and so did they of their forefathers. This is
but an old custom, because we all feel the evil of our
own times, but we see not that which was before us.
2. Perhaps you speak as you think. Worldlings
think the world is at the best when it is agreeable
to their minds, and when they have most mirth and
worldly pleasure ; and I doubt not but the devil,
as well as you, would say that then it was a better
world ; for then he had more service and less dis-
turbance. But the world is at the best when God
is most loved, regarded, and obeyed ; and how else
will you know when the world is good or bad, but
by this ?
Objection 10. There are so many ways and re-
ligions, that we know not which to be of, and there-
fore we will be even as we are.
Answer. Because there are many, will you, be of
that way that you may be sure is wrong ? None
are further out of the way than worldly, fleshly, un-
THE UNCONVEKTED.
121
converted sinners ; for they do not only err in this
or that opinion, as many sects do, but in the very
scope and drift of their lives. If you were going
a journey that your life lay on, would you stop or
turn again because you met with some crossways,
or because you saw some travellers go the horse-
way, and some the foot-way, and some perhaps
break over the hedge, yea, and some miss the way ?
Or would you not rather be the more careful to
inquire the way ? If you have some servants that
know not how to do your work right, and some that
are unfaithful, would you take it wel1. of any of the
rest that would therefore be idle and do you no ser-
vice, because they see their companions so bad ?
Objection 11. I do not see that it goes any bet-
ter with those that are so godly, than with other
men ; they are as poor and in as much trouble as
others.
Answer. And perhaps in much more, when God
sees it meet. They take not earthly prosperity for
their wages ; they have laid up their treasure and
hopes in another world, or else they are not Chris-
tians indeed ; the less they have, the more is behind,
and they are content to wait till then.
Objection 12. "When you have said all that you
can, I am resolved to hope well, andr trust in God,
and do as well as I can, and not make so much ado.
Answer 1. Is that doing as well as you can, when
you will not turn to God, but your heart is against
A CALL TO
his hoiy and diligent service ? It is as well as you
will, indeed, but that is your misery.
2. My desire is, that yon should hope and trust
in God. But for what is it that you will hope ? Is
it to be saved, if you turn and be sanctified ? For
this you have God's promise, and therefore I say,
hope for it, and spare not. But if you hope to be
saved without conversion and a holy life, this is not
to hope in God, but in Satan, or yourselves ; for
God hath given you no such promise, but told you
the contrary ; but it is Satan and self-love that made
you such promises, and raised you to such hopes.
Well, if these objections and such as these, be all
you have to say against conversion and a holy life,
your all is nothing, and worse than nothing ; and if
these, and such as these, seem reasons sufficient to
persuade you to forsake God and cast yourselves
into hell, the Lord deliver you from such reasons,
and from such blind understandings, and from such
senseless, hardened hearts. Dare you stand to aver
one of these reasons at the bar of God ? Do you
think it will then serve your turn to say, " Lord, I
did not turn, because I had so much to do in the
world, or because I did not like the lives of some pro-
fessors, or because I saw men of so many minds
0 how easily will the light of that day confound
and shame such reasonings as these ! Had you the
world to look after ? Let the world which you
served now pay you your wages, and save you if it
THE UNCONVERTED.
bin. Had you not a better world to look after first,
and were you not commanded to seek first God's
kingdom and righteousness, and promised that other
things should be added to you ? Matt. 6:33. And
were you not told that godliness is profitable to all
things, having the promise of this life and that which
is to come ? 1 Tim. -4:8. Did the sins of professors
hinder you ? You should rather have been the more
heedful, and learned by their falls to beware, and
have been the more careful, and not the more care-
less. It was the Scripture, and not their lives, that
was- your rule. Did the many opinions of the world
hinder you ? "Why, the Scripture that was your rule
did teach you but one way, and that was the right
way. If you had followed that, even in so much
as was plain and easy, you would never have mis-
carried. "Will not such answers as these confound
and silence you ? If these will not, God hath those
that will. When he asked the man, " Friend, how
earnest thou in hither, not having on a wedding grar-
ment ?" Matt. 22:12, that is, what doest thou in my
church among professed Christians, without a holy
heart and life — what answer did he make ? Why,
the text saith, " he was speechless ;" he had nothing
to say. The clearness of the case and the majesty
of God will then easily stop the mouths of the most
confident of you, though you will not be put down
by any thing we can say to you now, but will make
good your cause, be it ever so bad. I know already
124
A CALL TO
that never a reason that now you can give me m&
do you any good at last, when your case must be
opened before the Lord, and all the world.
Nay, I scarce think that your own consciences are
well satisfied with your reasons ; for if they are, it
.seems, then, you have not so much as a purpose to
repent. But if you do purpose to repent, it seems
you do not put much confidence in the reasons which
you bring against it.
What say you, unconverted sinners ? Have you
any good reasons to give why you should not turn,
and presently turn with all your hearts ? Or will
you go to hell in despite of reason itself ? Bethink
you what you do in time, for it will shortly be too
late to bethink you. Can you find any fault with
God, or his work, or wages ? Is he a bad master ?
Is the devil, whom you serve, a better? or is the
flesh a better ? Is there any harm in a holy life ?
Is a life of worldlmess and ungodliness better ? Do
you think in your consciences that it would do you
any harm to be converted and live a holy life ? What
harm can it do you ? Is it harm to you to have the
Spirit of Christ within you, and to have a cleansed,
purified heart ? If it be bad to be holy, why doth
God say, "Be ye holy, for I am holy?" 1 Pet.
1 : 15, 16 ; Lev. 20 : 7. Is it evil to be like God ?
Is it not said that God made man in his own image ?
Why, this holiness is his image ; this Adam lost, and
this Christ by his word and Spirit would restore to
THE UNCONVERTED.
125
you, as he doth to all that he will save. How is it
that men are baptized into the Holy Ghost as their
Sanctifier, and yet you will not be sanctified by him,
but think it a hurt to you to be sanctified ? Tell me
truly, as before the Lord, though you are loath to
live a holy life, had you not rather die in the case
of those that do so, than of others ? If you were
to die this day, had you not rather die in the case
of a converted man than of an unconverted ? of a
holy and heavenly man than of a carnal, earthly
man? and would you not say as Balaam, "Let me
die the death of the righteous, and let my last end
be like his ?" Numb. 23 : 10. And why will you
not now be of the mind that you will be of then ?
First or last you must come to this, either to be con-
verted, or to wish you had been, when it is too late.
But what is it that you are afraid of losing, if you
turn? Is it your friends? You will but change
them ; God will be your Friend, and Christ and the
Spirit will be your Friend ; and every Christian will
be your friend. You will get one Friend that will
stand you in more stead than all the friends in the
world could have done. The friends you lose would
have but enticed you to hell, but could not have
delivered you : but the Friend you get will save you
from hell, and bring you to his own eternal rest.
Is it your pleasures that you are afraid of losing ?
You think you shall never have a merry day again
if once you be converted. Alas ! that you should
A CALL TO
think it a greater pleasure to live in foolish sports
and merriments, and please your flesh, than to live
in the believing thoughts of glory, and in the love
of God, and in righteousness, and peace, and joy in
the Holy Ghost, in which the state of grace consist-
eth. Rom. 14:17. If it would be a greater pleas-
ure for you to think of your lands and inheritance,
if you were lord of all the country, than it is for a
child to play at pins, why should it not be a greatei
joy to you to think of the kingdom of heaven being
yours, than all the riches or pleasures of the world ?
As it is but foolish childishness that makes children
so delight in toys that thev would not leave them
for all your lands, so it is but foolish worldliness,
and neshliness, and wickedness, that makes you so
much delight in your houses and lands, and meat
and drink, and ease and honor, as that you would
not part with them for the heavenly delights. But
what will you do for pleasure when these are gone ?
Do you not think of that ? When your pleasures
end in horror, and go out like a taper, the pleasures
of the saints are then the highest, I have had my-
self but a littlp taste of the heavenly pleasures in
the forethoughts of the blessed approaching day,
and in the present persuasions of the love of God
in Christ ; but I have taken too deep a draught of
earthly pleasures : so that you may see, if I be par-
tial, it is on your side ; and yet I must profess, from
that little experience, that there is no comparison.
THE UNCONVERTED.
127
There is more joy to be had in a day, if the sun of
life shine clear upon us, in the state of holiness, than
in a whole life of sinful pleasures. " I had rather
be a door-keeper in the house of God than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness." Psalm 84 : 10. " A
day in his courts is better than a thousand" any
where else. The mirth of the wicked is like the
laughter of a madman, that knows not his own mis-
ery ; and therefore Solomon says of such laughter,
"it is mad ; and of mirth, what doeth it ?" " It is
better to go to the house of mourning than to go to
the house of feasting ; for that is the end of all men,
and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is
better than laughter; for by the sadness of the
countenance the heart is made better. The heart
of the wise is in the house of mourning ; but the
heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better
to bear the rebuke of the wise, than to hear the
song of fools ; for as the crackling of thorns under
a pot, so is the laughter of the fool." Eccles. 2:2;
7 : 2-6. Your loudest laughter is but like that of a
man that is tickled ; he laughs when he has no cause
of joy. Judge, as you are men, whether this be a
wise man's part. It is but your carnal, unsanctified'
nature that makes a holy life seem grievous to you,
and a course of sensuality seem more delightful. If
you will but turn, the Holy Ghost will give you an-
other nature and inclination, and then it will be more
pleasant to you to be rid of your sin, than now it is
A CALL TO
to keep it ; and you Tvill then say, that you knew not
what a comfortable life was till now, and that it was
never well with you till God and holiness were your
delight.
Question. But how cometh it to pass that men
should be so unreasonable in the matters of salva-
tion ? They have sense enough in other matters :
what makes them so loath to be converted that there
should need so many words in so plain a case, and
all will not do, but the most will live and die uncon-
verted ?
Axswzn. To name then: only in a few words, the
causes are these :
1. Men are naturally hi love with the earth and
rlesh ; they are born sinners, and their nature hath
an enmity to God and godliness, as the nature of a
serpent hath to a man : and when all that we can
say goes against an habitual inclination of their na-
tures, no marvel if it prevail little.
2. They are in darkness, and know not the very
things they hear. Like a man that was bom blind,
and hears a high commendation of the light ; but
what will hearing do unless he Sees it ? They know
not what God is. nor what is the power of the cross
of Christ, nor what the Spirit of holiness is, nor what
t is to live in love by faith : they know not the cer-
tainty, and suitableness, and excellency of the heav-
enly inheritance. They know not what conversion
and a holy mind and conversation is. even when they
THE UNCONVERTED
hear of it. They are in a mist of ignorance. They
are lost and bewildered in sin ; like a man that has
lost himself in the night, and knows not where he
is, nor how to come to himself again, till the day-
light recover him.
3. They are wilfully confident that they need no
conversion, but only some partial amendment, and
that they are in the way to heaven already, and are
converted when they are not. And if you meet a
man that is quite out of his way, you may long
enough call on him to turn back again, if he will
not believe that he is out of the way.
4. They are become slaves to their flesh, and
drowned in the world, to make provision for it.
Their lusts, and passions, and appetites have dis-
tracted them, and got such power over them that
they cannot tell how to deny them, or how to mind
any thing else ; so that the drunkard saith, I love a
cup of good drink, and I cannot forbear ; the glut-
ton saith, I love good cheer, and I cannot forbear ;
the fornicator saith, I love to have my lust fulfilled,
and I cannot forbear; and the gamester loves to
have his sports, and he cannot forbear. So that
they are become even captivated slaves to their
flesh, and their very wilfulness is become an inipo-
tency ; and what they would not do, they say they
cannot. And the worldling is so taken up with
earthly things, that he hath neither heart, nor mind,
nor time for heavenly ; but, as in Pharaoh's dream,
B< Ceil. 9
ISO
A CALL TO
Gen. 41 : 4, the lean kine did eat up the fat ones,
so this lean and barren earth doth eat up all the
thoughts of heaven.
5. Some are so carried away by the stream of
evil company, that they are possessed with hard
thoughts of a godly life, by hearing them speak
against it ; or at least they think they may venture
to do as they see most do, and so they hold on in
their sinful ways ; and when one is cut off and cast
into hell, and another snatched away from among
them to the same condemnation, it doth not much
daunt them, because they see not whither they are
gone. Poor wretches, they hold on in their ungod-
liness for all this ; for they little know that their
companions are now lamenting it in torments. In
Luke 16, the rich man in hell would fain have had
one to warn his five brethren, lest they should come
to that place of torment. It is likely he knew their
minds and lives, and knew that they were hasting
thither, and little dreamed that he was there, yea,
and would little have believed one that should have
told them so.
I remember an occurrence that a gentleman, yet
living, told me he saw upon a bridge over the Sev-
ern.* A man was driving a flock of fat lambs, and
something meeting them and hindering their passage,
one of the lambs leaped upon the wall of the bridge,
and his legs slipping he fell into the stream ; and the
* Mr. R. Rowly, of Shrewsbury, upon Acham-Bridge.
THE UNCONTESTED.
131
rest seeing him, did, one after another, leap over the
bridge into the stream, till all or almost all were
drowned. Those that were behind little knew what
was become of them that were gone before, but
thought they might venture to follow their compan-
ions ; but as soon as ever they were over the wall,
and falling headlong, the case was altered. Even
so it is with unconverted, carnal men. One dieth
by them and drops into hell, and another follows the
same way ; and yet they will go after them, because
they think not whither they are going. 0, but when
death hath once opened their eyes, and they see
what is on the other side of the wall, even in another
world, then what would they give to be where they
were !
6. Moreover, they have a subtle, malicious enemy,
that is unseen of them, and plays his game in the
dark ; and it is his principal business to hinder their
conversion ; and therefore to keep them where they
are, by persuading them not to believe the Scriptures,
or not to trouble their minds with these matters ; or
by persuading them to think ill of a godly life, or
to think that more is enjoined than need be, and
that they may be saved without conversion, and
without all this stir ; and that God is so merciful
that he will not damn any such as they ; or at least,
that they may stay a little longer, and take their
pleasure, and follow the world a little longer yet,
and then let it go, and repent hereafter. And by
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A CALL TO
such juggling, deluding cheats as these, the devil
keeps the most in his captivity, and leadeth them to
his misery.
These, and such like impediments as these, do
•keep so many thousands unconverted, when God
hath done so much, and Christ hath suffered so
much, and ministers have said so much for their
conversion. When their reasons are silenced and
they are not able to answer the Lord that calls after
them, P Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?" yet all
comes to nothing with the greatest part of them ;
and they leave us no more to do, after all, but to sit
down and lament their wilful misery.
I have now showed you the reasonableness of
God's commands, and the unreasonableness of wick-
ed men's disobedience. If nothing will serve to per-
suade them, but men will yet refuse to turn, we are
next to consider who is in fault if they be damned.
And this brings me to the last doctrine ; which is,
THE UNCONVERTED.
133
DOCTRINE VII,
That if after all this men will not turn, it is not the fault of
God that they are condemned, but their own, even their own
wilfulness. They die because they will, that is, because they
will not turn.
If you will go to hell, what remedy ? God here
acquits himself of your hlood ; it shall not He on
him if you be lost. A negligent minister may draw
it upon him ; and those that encourage you or hin-
der you not in sin, may draw it upon them ; but be
sure of it, it shall not lie upon God. Saith the
Lord, concerning his unprofitable vineyard, " Judge,
I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard : what could
have been done more to my vineyard that I have not
done in it?" Isa. 5:1-4. When he had planted
it in a fruitful soil, and fenced it, and gathered out
the stones, and planted it with the choicest vines,
what should he have done more to it? He hath
made you men, and endowed you with reason ; he
hath furnished you with all external necessaries ; all
creatures are at your service ; he hath given you a
righteous, perfect law. When you had broken it and
undone yourselves, he had pity on you, and sent his
Son by a miracle of condescending mercy to die for
you, and be a sacrifice for your sins ; and he was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself !
The Lord Jesus hath made you a deed of gift of
134
A CALL TO
himself, and eternal life with him, on the condition
you will but accept it, and return. He hath on this
reasonable condition offered you the free pardon of
all your sins ! he hath written this in his word, and
sealed it by his Spirit, and sent it by his ministers :
they haye made the offer to you a hundred and a
hundred times, and called you to accept it, and to
turn to God. They have in his name entreated you,
and reasoned the case with you, and answered all
your frivolous objections. He hath long waited on
you, and stayed your leisure, and suffered you to
abuse him to his face ! He hath mercifully sustained
you in the midst of your sins ; he hath compassed
you about with all sorts of mercies ; he hath also
inteimixed afflictions, to remind you of your folly
and call you to your senses, and his Spirit has been
often striving with your hearts, saying, " Turn, sin-
ner, turn to him that calleth thee. "Whither art
thou going ? What art thou doing; ? Dost thou
know what will be the end ? How long wilt thou
hate thy friends and love thine enemies ? When
wilt thou let go all, and turn and deliver up thyself
to God, and give thy Redeemer the possession of
thy soul ? When shall it once be ?" These plead-
ings have been used with thee, and when thou hast
delayed, thou hast been urged to make haste, and
God hath called to thee, "To-day, while it is called
to-day, harden not thy heart." W7hy not listen now
without any more delay ?
THE UNCONVERTED.
135
Life hath been set before you ; the joys of heaven
nave been opened to you in the Gospel; the cer-
tainty of them hath been manifested ; the certainty
of the everlasting torments of the damned hath been
declared to you — -unless you would have had a sight
of heaven and hell, what could you desire more ?
Christ hath been, as it were, set forth crucified be-
fore your eyes. Gal. 3:1. You have been a hun-
dred times told that you are but lost men till you
come unto him ; as often you have been told of the
evil of sin, of the vanity of sin, the world, and all
the pleasures and wealth it can afford ; of the short-
ness and uncertainty of your lives, and the endless
duration of the joy or torment of the life to come.
All this, and more than this have you been told, and
told again, even till you were weary of hearing it,
and till you could make the lighter of it, because
you had so often heard it, like the smith's dog, that
is brought by custom to sleep under the noise of the
hammers and when the sparks fly about his ears ;
and though all this have not converted you, yet you
are alive, and might have mercy to this day, if you
had but hearts to entertain it. And now let reason
itself be the judge, whether it be the fault of God,
or of yourselves, if after all this you will be uncon-
verted and be damned. If you die now, it is be-
cause you will die.
What should be said more to you, or what course
should be taken that is more likely to prevail ? Are
136
A CALL TO
you able to say, and make it good, " Yvre would fain
have been converted and become new creatures, but
we could not ; we would fain have forsaken our sins,
but we could not ; we would have changed our
company, and our thoughts, and our discourse, but
we could not.". Why could you not if you would ?
What hindered you but the wickedness of your
hearts ? Who forced you to sin, or who held you
back from duty ? Had not you the same teaching,
and time, and liberty to be godly, as your godly
neighbors had ? Why then could not you have been
godly as well as they? Were the church-doors
shut against you, or did you not keep away your-
selves, or sit and sleep, or hear as if you did not
hear ? Did God put in any exceptions against you
in his word, when he invited sinners to return ; and
when he promised mercy to those that do return ?
Did he say, " I will pardon all that repent except
thee?" Did he shut thee out from the liberty of
his holy worship ? Did he forbid you to pray to
him any more than others ? You know he did not,
God did not drive you away from him, but you for-
sook him, and ran away yourselves, and when he
called you to him, you would not come.
If God had excepted you out of the general
promise and offer of mercy, or had said to you,
"Stand off, I will have nothing to do with such as
you ; pray not to me, for I will not hear you ; if you
repent never so much, and cry for mercy never so
THE UNCONVERTED.
137
much, I will not regard you" — if God had left you
nothing to trust to but desperation, then you had a
fair excuse ; you might hare said, " To what end
should I repent and turn, when it will do no good ?"
But this was not your case : you might have had
Christ to be your Lord and Saviour, your head and
husband, as well as others, and you would not, be-
cause you felt yourselves not sick enough for the
physician ; and because you could not spare your
disease. In your hearts you said as those rebels,
Luke 19 : 14, "We will not have this man to reign
over us." Christ would have gathered you under
the wings of his salvation, and you would not.
Matt. 23 : 37. What desires of your welfare did
the Lord express in his holy word ! With what
compassion did he stand over you and say, "0 that
my people had hearkened unto me, and that they
had walked in my ways !" Psalm 81 : 13. " 0 that
there were such a heart in this people, that they
would fear me, and keep all my commandments al-
ways, that it might be well with them and with their
children for ever!" Deut. 5:29. "0 that they
were wise, that they understood this, that they
would consider their latter end." Deut. 32 : 29.
He would have been your God, and done all for you
that your souls could well desire ; but you loved the
world and your flesh above him, and therefore you
would not hearken to him, though you compliment-
ed him, and gave him high titles ; yet when it came
138
A CALL TO
to the closing, you would have none of him. Psalm
81 : 11, 12. No marvel, then, if he gave you up to
your own hearts' lusts, and you walked in your own
counsels.
He condescends to reason, and pleads the case
with you, and asks you, "What is there in me, or
my service, that you should be so much against me ?
What harm have I done thee, sinner? Have I de-
served this unkind dealing at thy hand? Many
mercies have I showed thee : for which of them dost
thou thus despise me? Is it I, or is it Satan that is
thy enemy ? Is it I, or is it thy carnal self that
would undo thee ? Is it a holy life, or a life of sin,
that thou hast cause to fly from? If thou be un-
done, thou procurest this to thyself, by forsaking
me, the Lord that would have saved thee." Jer.
2:17. " Doth not thy own wickedness correct thee,
and thy sin reprove thee ? Thou mayest see that
it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken
me." Jer. 2:19. " What iniquity have you found
in me that you have followed after vanity, and for-
saken me?" Jer. 2:5, 6. He calleth out, as it
were, to the brutes, to hear the controversy he hath
against you. "Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's
controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth ;
for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and
he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have
I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee ?
testify against me, for I brought thee up out of
THE UNCONVERTED.
139
Egypt,, and redeemed thee." Micah 6 : 2, 3. " Hear,
O heavens, and give ear, 0 earth, for the Lord hath
spoken. I have nourished and brought up children,
and they have rebelled against me. The ox know-
eth his owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but
Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider!
Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a
seed of evil- doers !" etc. Isaiah 1 : 2, 4. " Do you
thus requite the Lord, 0 foolish people and unwise ?
Is not he thy Father that bought thee ? Hath he
not made thee, and established thee ?" Deut. 32 : 6.
When he saw that you forsook him, even for noth-
ing, and turned away from the Lord of life to hunt
after the chaff and feathers of the world, he told
you of your folly, and called you to a more profit-
able employment, Isaiah 55 : 2-7. "Wherefore do
you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which satisfieth not ? Heark-
en diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is
good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. In-
cline your ear, and come unto me ; hear, and your
soul shall live ; and I will make an everlasting cov-
enant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found : call ye
upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and
let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mer-
cy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundant-
ly pardon." Isa. 55 : 2~ 7 ; and so chap, 1 : 16-18.
140
A CALL TO
And when you would not hear, what complaints
have you caused him to bring against you ! charg-
ing it on you as your wilfulness and stubbornness.
"Be astonished, 0 heavens, at this, and be horribly
afraid ; for my people have committed two evils :
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that
can hold no water." Jer. 2 : 12, 13. Many a time
hath Christ proclaimed that free invitation to yon,
" Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will,
let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22 : 17.
But you put him to complain, after all his offers,
" They will not come to me, that they may have
life." John 5 : 40. He hath invited you to feast
with him in the kingdom of his grace, and you have
had excuses from your grounds, and your cattle,
and your worldly business ; and when you would
not come, you have said you could not, and pro-
voked him to resolve that you should never taste of
his supper. Luke 14: 16-25. And who is it the
fault of now but yourselves ? and what can you say
is the chief cause of your damnation but your own
wills ? you wou^d be damned. The whole case is
laid open by Christ himself. " Wisdom crieth with-
out, she uttereth her voice in the streets ; she crieth
in the chief place of concourse — How long, ye sim-
ple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the scorners
delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge ?
Turn ye at my reproof. Behold. I will pour out my
THE UNCONVERTED.
141
Spirit upon you, I will make known my words unto
you. Because I have called, and ye refused ; I have
stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; but
ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would
none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your ca-
lamity, I will mock when your fear cometh ; when
your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruc-
tion cometh as a whirlwind ; when distress and an-
guish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon
me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me ear-
ly, but they shall not find me ; for that they hated
knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.
They would none of my counsel ; they despised all
my reproof ; therefore shall they eat of the fruit of
their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them,
and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But
whoso hearkeneth to me shall dwell safely, and shall
be quiet from the fear of 'evil." Prov. 1 : 20-33. I
thought best to recite the whole text at large to
you, because it doth so fully show the cause of the
destruction of the wicked. It is not because God
would not teach them, but because they would not
learn. It is not because God would not call them,
but because they would not turn at his reproof.
Their wilfulness is their undoing.
From what hath been said, you may further learn
these following things :
14Q
A CALL TO
1. From hence you may see not only what blas-
phemy and impiety it is to lay the blame of men's
destruction upon God, but also how unfit these wick-
ed wretches are to bring in such a charge against
their Maker ! They cry out upon God, and say
that he gives them no grace, and that his threaten-,
ings are severe, and that it is unreasonable that all
should be condemned who are not converted and
sanctified ; and they think it hard measure that a
short sin should have an endless suffering ; and if
they be damned they say they cannot help it, when
in the meantime they are bringing about their own
destruction, even the destruction of their own souls,
and will not be persuaded to hold their hands.
They think God were cruel if he should condemn
them, and yet they are so cruel to themselves that
they will run into the fire of hell, when God hath
told them it is but a little before them ; and neither
entreaties nor threatenings, nor any thing that can
be said, will stop them.
We see them almost undone ; their careless, world-
ly, fleshly lives tell us that they are in the power of
the devil ; we know, if they die before they are con-
verted, all the world cannot save them ; and knowing
the uncertainty of their fives, we are afraid every
day lest they drop into the fire ; and therefore we
entreat them to pity their own souls, and not to
undo themselves when mercy is at hand, but they
will not hear us. We entreat them to cast away
THE UNCONVERTED.
H3
their sin, and come to Christ without delay, and to
have some mercy on themselves, but they will have
none; and yet they think that God must be cruel if
he condemn them.
0 wilful, miserable sinners ! it is not God that is
cruel to you, it is you that are cruel to yourselves ;
you are told you must turn or burn, and yet you
turn not. You are told that if you will needs keep
your sins, you shall keep the curse of God with
them, and yet you will keep them. You are told
that there is no way to happiness but by holiness,
and yet you will not be holy. What would yon
have God say more to you ? "What would you have
him do with his mercy ? He offereth it to you,
and you' will not have it. You are in the ditch of
sin and misery, and he would give you his hand to
help you out, and you refuse his help ; he would
cleanse you of your sins, and you had rather keep
them ; you love your lust, and love your gluttony,
and sports, and drankenness, and will not let them
go. Would you have Mm bring you to heaven
whether you will or not ? Or would you have him
bring you and your sins to heaven together ? That
is an impossibility ; you may as well expect he should
turn the sun into darkness. What ! an unsanctified
fleshly heart be in heaven ! it cannot be. There
entereth into it nothing that is unclean. Rev.
21 : 27. "For what communion hath light with
darkness, or Christ with Belial ?" " All the day long
144
A CALL TO
hath he stretched out his hands to a disobedient
and gainsaying people." 2 Cor. 6 : 14, 15 ; Rom.
10: 21.
What will you do now ? Will you cry to God
for mercy ? Why, God calleth upon you to have
mercy upon yourselves, and you will not ? Ministers
see the poisoned cup in the drunkard's hand, and
tell him there is poison in it, and desire him to have
mercy on his soul, and forbear, and he will not hear
us ! Drink it he must and will ; he loves it, and
therefore, though hell comes next, he saith he can-
not help it. What should one say to such men as
these ? We tell the ungodly careless worldling, it is
not such a life that will serve the turn, or ever bring
you to heaven. If a lion were at your back you
would mend your pace ; and when the curse of God
is at your back, and Satan and hell are at your back,
will you not stir, but ask, What need of all this ado ?
Is an immortal soul of no more worth? O have
mercy upon yourselves! But they will have no
mercy on themselves, nor once regard us. We tell
them the end will be bitter. Who can dwell with
everlasting fire? And yet they will have no mercy
on themselves. Still will these shameless transgres-
sors say that God is more merciful than to condemn
them, when it is themselves that cruelly and unmer-
cifully run upon condemnation ; and if we should go
to them and entreat them, we cannot stop them ; if
we should fall on our knees tc them we cannot stop
THE UNCONVERTED.
145
them, but to hell they will go, and yet will not be-
lieve that they are going thither.
If we beg of them, for the sake of God that made
them, and preserveth them ; for the sake of Christ
that died for them ; for the sake of their own souls,
to pity themselves, and go no further in the way to
hell, but come to Christ while his arms are open,
and enter into the state of life while the door stands
open, and now take mercy while mercy may be had,
they will not be persuaded. If we should die for it,
we cannot so much as get them now and then to
consider with themselves of the matter, and turn ;
and yet they can say, " I hope God will be mer-
ciful." Did you never consider what he saith, Isa.
27 : 11, "It is a people of no understanding : there-
fore he that made them will not have mercy on
them, and he that formed them will show them no
favor." If another man will not clothe you when
you are naked, and feed you when you are hungry,
you will say he is unmerciful. If he should cast
you into prison, or beat and torment you, you would
say he is unmerciful: and yet you will do a thou-
sand times more against yourselves, even cast away
both soul and body for ever, and never complain of
your own unmercifulness ! Yea, and God that wait-
ed upon you all the while with his mercy, must be
taken to be unmerciful, if he punish you after all
ihis. Unless the holy God of heaven will give these
ungodly men leave to trample upon his Son's blood,
B. Call. IQ
146
A CALL TO
and with the Jews, as it were, again to spit in his
face, and do despite to the Spirit of grace, and make
a jest of sin, and a mock at holiness, and set more
light by saving mercy than by their fleshly pleas-
ures ; and unless, after all this, he will save them
by the mercy which they cast away, and would have
none of, God himself must be called unmerciful by
them ! But he will be justified when he judgeth,
and he will not stand or fall at the bar of a sinful
worm.
I know there are many particular cavils that are
brought by them against the Lord ; but I shall not
here stay to answer them particularly, having done
it already in my Treatise of Judgment, to which I
shall refer them. Had the disputing part of the
world been as careful to avoid sin and destruction as
they have been busy in searching after the cause of
them, and forward indirectly to impute them to God,
they might have exercised their wits mora profit-
ably, and have less wronged God, and sped better
themselves. When so ugly a monster as sin is with-
in us, and so heavy a thing as punishment is on us,
and so dreadful a thing as hell is before us, one
would think it would be an easy question who is in
the fault ; whether God or man be the principal
or culpable cause. Some men are such favorable
judges of themselves, that they are more prone to
accuse infinite perfection and goodness itself, than
their own hearts, and imitate their first parents, who
THE UNCONVERTED. 147
said, " The serpent tempted me ; and the woman
that thou gavest me gTave unto me, and I did eat
secretly implying that God "was the cause. So say
they, The understanding that thou gavest me was
unable to discern ; the will that thou gavest me was
unable to make a better choice ; the objects which
thou didst set before me did entice me ; the tempta-
tions which thou didst permit to assault me prevail-
ed against me." And some are so loath to think that
God can make a self-determining creature, that they
dare not deny him that which they take to be his
prerogative, to be the determiner of the will in every
sin, as the first efficient immediate physical cause ;
and many could be content to acquit God from so
much causing of evil, if they could but reconcile it
with his being the chief cause of good ; as if truths
would be no longer truths than we are able to see
them in their perfect order and coherence : because
our ravelled wits cannot set them right together, nor
assign each truth its proper place, we presume to
conclude that some must be cast away. This is the
fruit of proud self-conceitedness, when men receive
not God's truth as children, in holy submission to
the omniscience of our Teacher, but as censurers
that are too wise to learn.
Objection. But we cannot convert ourselves till
God convert us ; we can do nothing without his
grace ; it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
148
A CALL TO
Answer. God hath two degrees of mercy to
show : the mercy of conversion first, and the mercy
of salvation last ; the latter he will give to none but
those that will and run, and hath promised it to them
only. The former is to make them willing that are
wrwilling ; and though your own willingness and en-
deavors deserve not his grace, yet your wilful refusal
deserveth that it should be denied to you. Youi
disability is your very unwillingness itself, which ex-
cuseth not your sin, but maketh it the greater. You
could turn if you were but truly willing ; and if your
wills themselves are so corrupted that nothing but
effectual grace will move them, you have the more
cause to seek for that grace, and yield to it, and do
what you can in the use of means, and not neglect
it and set yourselves against it. Do what you are
able first, and then complain of God for denying you
grace, if you have cause.
Objection. But you seem to intimate all this while
that man hath free will.
Answer. The dispute about free will is beyond
your capacity; I shall therefore now trouble you
with no more but this about it. Your will is natu-
rally a free, that is, a self-determhiing faculty ; but
it is viciously inclined, and backward to do good ;
and therefore we see, by sad experience, that it hath
not a virtuous moral freedom ; but this is the wick-
edness of it which deserveth the punishment ; and
[ pray you let us not befool ourselves with opinions.
THE UNCONVERTED. 149
Let the case be your own. If you had an enemy
who was so malicious as to fall upon you, and beat
you, or take away the lives of your children, would
you excuse him because he said, I have not free will :
it is my nature, I cannot choose unless God give me
grace ? If you had a servant that robbed you, would
you take such an answer from him ? Might not ev-
ery thief and murderer that is hanged at the assize
give such an answer : I have not free will ; I cannot
change my own heart ; what can I do without God's
grace ? and shall they therefore be acquitted ? If
not, why then should you think to be acquitted for
a course of sin against the Lord ?
2. From hence also you may observe these three
things together: 1. What a subtle tempter Satan
is. 2. What a deceitful thing sin is. 3. What a fool-
ish, corrupted creature man is. A subtle tempter,
indeed, that can persuade the greatest part of the
world to go into everlasting fire, when they have so
many warnings and dissuasives as they have ! A
deceitful thing is sin, indeed, that can bewitch so
many thousands to part with everlasting life for a
thing so base and utterly unworthy ! A foolish
creature is man, indeed, that will be cheated of his
salvation for nothing, yea, for a known nothing ; and
that by an enemy, and a known enemy. You would
think it impossible that any man in his senses should
be persuaded for a trifle to cast himself into the fire,
or water, or into a coal-pit, to the destruction of his
150
A CALL TO
life ; and yet men will be enticed to cast themselves
into hell. If your natural lives were in your own
hand, that you should not die till you would kill
yourselves, how long would most of you live ! And
yet, when everlasting life is so far in your own hands,
under God, that you cannot be undone till you undo
yourselves, how few of you will forbear your own
undoing ! Ah, what a silly thing is man ! and what
a bewitching and befooling thing is sin !
3. From hence, also, you may learn, that it is no
great wonder if wicked men be hinderers of others
in the way to heaven, and would have as many un-
converted as they can, and would draw them into
sin, and keep them in it. Can you expect that they
should have mercy on others, that have none upon
themselves ? and that they should hesitate much at
the destruction of others, that hesitate not to destroy
themselves ? They do no worse by others than they
do by themselves.
4. Lastly : You may hence learn that the greatest
enemy to man is himself ; and the greatest judgment
in this life that can befall him, is to be left to him-
self ; and that the great work that grace hath to do,
is to save us from ourselves ; and that the greatest
accusations and complaints of men should be against
themselves ; and that the greatest work we have to
do ourselves, is to resist ourselves ; and the greatest
enemy that we should daily pray, and watch, and
strive against, is our own carnal hearts and wills ;
THE UNCONVERTED,
and the greatest part of your work, if yon would
do good to others, and help them to heaven, is to
save them from themselves, even from their own
blind understandings, and .corrupted wills, and per-
verse affections, and violent passions, and unruly
senses, I only name ail these for brevity's sake, and
leave them to your further consideration.
Well, sirs, now we have found out the great de-
linquent and murderer of souls, even men's selves,
their own wills, what remains but that you judge
according to the evidence, and confess this great
iniquity before the Lord, and be humbled for it, and
do so no more ? To these three ends distinctly I
shall add a few words more. 1. Further to con-
vince you. 2. To humble you. And, 3. To reform
you, if there yet be any hope.
1. We know so much of the exceeding gracious
nature of God, who is willing to do good, and de-
lighteth to show mercy, that we have no reason to
suspect him of being the culpable cause of our death,
or to call him cruel : he made all good, and he pre-
serveth and maintaineth all; the eyes of all wait
upon him, and he giveth them their meat in due
season ; he openeth his hand, and satisfieth the de-
sires of all the living. Psalm 145 : 15, 16. He is
not only righteous in all his ways, and therefore will
deal justly ; and holy in all his works/and therefore
not the author of sin ; but he is also good to all, and
152
A CALL TO
his tender mercies are over all his works. Psalm
145.: 11 > 19.
But as for man, we know his mind is dark, his will
perverse, and his affections carry him so headlong,
that he is fitted by his folly and corruption to such
a work as the destroying of himself. If you saw a
lamb lie killed in the way, would you sooner suspect
the sheep or the wolf to be the author of it, if they
both stand by ? Or if you see a house broken open,
and the people murdered, would you sooner suspect
the prince or judge, that is wise and just, and had
no need, or a known thief or murderer ? I say,
therefore, as James, 1 : 13-15, "Let no man say,
when he is tempted, that he is tempted of God ; for
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth
he any man, (to draw him to sin ;) but every man is
tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and
enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it brincfeth
forth sin ; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth
death." You see here that sin is the offspring of
your own concupiscence, and not to be charged on
God ; and that death is the offspring of your own
sin, and the fruit which it will yield you as soon as
it is ripe. You have a treasure of evil in yourselves,
as a spider hath of poison, from whence you are
bringing forth hurt to yourselves, and spinning such
webs as entangle your own souls. Your nature
shows it is you that are the cause.
2. It is evident that you are your own destroyers,
THE UNCONVERTED,
153
in that you are so ready to entertain any temptation
almost that is offered to you. Satan is scarcely more
ready to move you to any evil, than you are ready
to hear and to do as he would have you. If he
would tempt your understanding to error and preju-
dice, you yield. If he would hinder you from good
resolutions, it is soon done. If he would cool any
good desires or affections, it is soon done. If he
would kindle any lust, or vile affections and desires
in you, it is soon done. If he will put you on to
evil thoughts, words, or deeds, you are so free that
he needs no rod or spur. If he would keep you
from holy thoughts, and words, and ways, a little
does it, you need no curb. You examine not his
suggestions, nor resist them with any resolution, nor
cast them out as he casts them in, nor quench the
sparks which he endeavoreth to kindle ; but you set
in with him, and meet him half way, and embrace
his motions, and tempt him to tempt you. And it
is easy for him to catch such greedy fish that are
ranoing for a bait, and will take the bare hook.
3. Your destruction is evidently of yourselves, in
that you resist all that would help to save .you, and
would do you good, or hinder you from undoing
yourselves. God would help and save you by his
word, and you resist it ; it is too strict for you. He
would sanctify you by his Spirit, and you resist and
quench it. If any man reprove you for your sin,
you fly in his face with evil words ; and if he would
154
A CALL TO
draw you to a holy life, and tell you of present dan-
ger, you give him little thanks, but either bid him
look to himself, he will not have to answer for you ;
or at best you put him off with heartless thanks, and
will not turn when you are entreated. If ministers
would privately instruct and help you, you will not
come to them ; your unhumbled souls feel but little
need of their help ; if they would teach you, you
are too old to be taught, though you are not too old
to be ignorant and unholy. "Whatever they can say
to you for your good, you are so self-conceited and
wise in your own eyes, even in the depth of igno-
rance, that you will regard nothing that agreeth not
with your present conceits, but contradict your teach-
ers, as if you were wiser than they ; you resist all
that they can say to you, by your ignorance, and
wilfulness, and foolish cavils, and shifting evasions,
and unthankful rejections, so that no good that is
offered can find any welcome, or acceptance, or en-
tertainment with you.
4. Moreover, it is apparent that you are self-de-
stroyers, in that you " draw the matter of your sin
and destruction even from the blessed God himself."
You like not the contrivances of his wisdom ; you
like not his justice, but take it for cruelty ; you like
not his holiness, but are ready to think he is such a
one as yourselves, Psalm 50 : 21, and makes as light
of sin as you do ; you like not his truth, but would
have his threatenings, even his peremptory threat-
THE UNCONVERTED.
155
enings prove false ; and his goodness, which you
seem most highly to approve, you partly resist, as
it would lead you to repentance ; and partly abuse,
to the strengthening of your sin, as if you might
more freely sin because God is merciful, and because
his grace doth so much abound.
5. Yea, you draw down destruction even from the
blessed Redeemer, and death from the Lord of life
himself ! and nothing more emboldeneth you in sin,
than that Christ hath died for you ; as if now the
danger of death were over, and you might boldly
venture ; as if Christ were become a servant to Sa-
tan and your sins, and must wait upon you while
you are abusing him ; and because he is become the
Physician of souls, and is able to save to the utter-
most all that come to God by him, you think he
must suffer you to refuse his help, and throw away
his remedies, and must save you whether you will
come to God by him or not : so that a great part of
your sins are occasioned by your bold presumption
upon the death of Christ, not considering that he
came to redeem his people from their sins, and to
sanctify them a peculiar people to himself, and to
conform them in holiness to the image of their heav-
enly Father, and to their head. Matt. 1:21; Tit.
2:14; 1 Pet. 1 : 15, 16 ; Coloss. 3 : 10, 11 ; Phil.
3 : 9, 10.
6. You also draw your own destruction from all
the providences and works of God. When you think
156
A CALL TO
of his eternal foreknowledge and decrees, it is to
harden you in your sin, or possess your minds with
quarrelling thoughts, as if his decrees might spare
you the labor of repentance and a holy life, or else
were the cause of your sin and death. If he afflict
you, you repine ; if he prosper you, you the more for-
get him, and are the more backward to the thoughts
of the life to come. If the wicked prosper, you for-
get the end that will set all reckonings straight, and
are ready to think it is as good to be wicked as godly ;
and thus you draw your death from all.
i. And you pervert to your ruin all the creatures
and mercies of God to you. He giveth them to you
as the tokens of his love and furniture for his ser-
vice, and you turn them against him, to the pleasing
of your flesh. You eat and drink to please your
appetite, and not for the glory of God and to ena-
ble you to perform his work. Your clothes you
abuse to pride ; your riches draw your hearts from
heaven, Phil. 3:18; your honors and applause puff
you up ; if you have health and strength, it makes
you more secure, and you forget your end. Yea,
other men's mercies are abused by you to your hurt.
If you see their honors and dignity, you are provoked
to envy them ; if you see their riches, you are ready
to covet them ; if you look upon beauty, you are
stirred up to lust ; and it is well if godliness itself
be not an eyesore to you.
8. The very gifts that God bestoweth on you,
THE UNCONVERTED.
157
and the ordinances of grace which he hath instituted
for his church, you turn to sin. If you have better
parts than others, you grow proud and self- conceit-
ed ; if you have but common gifts, you take them
for special grace. You take the bare hearing of
your duty for so good a work, as if it would excuse
you for not obeying it. Your prayers are turned into
sin, because you "regard iniquity in your hearts,"
and depart not from iniquity when you call on the
name of the Lord. Psalm 66 : 18; 2 Tim. 2 : 19.
Your "prayers are abominable, because you turn
away your ear from hearing the law," and are more
ready to offer the sacrifice of fools, thinking you do
God some special service, than to hear his word and
obey it. Prov. 28 : 9 ; Eccles. 5:1.
9. Yea, the persons that you converse with, and
all their actions, you make the occasions of your sin
and destruction. If they live in the fear of God,
you hate them. If they live ungodly, you imitate
them ; if the wicked are many, you think you may
the more boldly follow them ; if the godly be few,
you are the more emboldened to despise them. If
they walk exactly, you think they are too precise ;
if one of them fall in a particular temptation, you
stumble and turn away from holiness because others
are imperfectly holy ; as if you were warranted to
break your necks because some others have, by their
heedlessness, sprained a sinew or put out a bone.
If a hypocrite discover himself, you say, " They are
158
A CALL TO
all alike," and think yourselves as honest as the
best. A professor can scarce slip into any miscar-
riage, but because he cuts his finger you think you
may boldly cut your throats. If ministers deal
plainly with you, you say they rail. If they speak
gently or coldly, you either sleep under them, or are
little more affected than the seats you sit upon. If
any errors creep into the church, some greedily en-
tertain them, and others reproach the Christian doc-
trine for them, which is most against them. And if
we would draw you from any ancient rooted error,
which can but plead two, or three, or six, or seven
hundred years' custom, you are as much offended
with a motion for reformation as if you were to lose
your life by it, and hold fast old errors, while you
cry out against new ones. Scarce a difference can
arise among the ministers of the Gospel but you
will draw your own death from it ; and you will not
hear, or at least not obey, the unquestionable doc-
trine of any of those that agree not with your con-
ceits. One will not hear a minister because he
readeth his sermons ; another will not hear him be-
cause he doth not read them. One will not hear him
because he saith the Lord's prayer ; and another will
not hear him because he doth not use it. One will
not hear them that are for episcopacy ; and another
will not hear them that are against it. And thus I
might show you in many other cases, how you turn
all that comes near you to your own destruction ; so
THE UNCONVERTED.
159
clear is it that the ungodly are self- destroyers, and
that their perdition is of themselves.
Methinks now, upon the consideration of what is
said, and the review of your own ways, you should
bethink you what you have done, and be ashamed
and deeply humbled to remember it. If you be not,
I pray you consider these following truths :
1. To be your own destroyers is to sin against
the deepest principle in your natures, even the prin-
ciple of self-preservation. Every thing naturally
desireth or inclineth to its own felicity, welfare, or
perfection ; and will you set yourselves to your own
destruction? When you are commanded to love
your neighbors as yourselves, it is supposed that
you naturally love yourselves ; but if you love your
neighbors no better than yourselves, it seems you
would have all the world to be damned.
2. How extremely do you cross your own inten-
tions. I know you intend not your own damna-
tion, even when you are procuring it ; you think
you are but doing good to yourselves, by gratifying
the desires of your flesh. But, alas, it is but as a
draught of cold water in a burning fever, or as the
scratching of an itching wildfire, which increaseth
the disease and pain. If indeed you would have
pleasure, profit, or honor, seek them where they are
to be found, and do not hunt after them in the way
to hell.
160
A CALL TO
3. What pity is it that you should do that against
yourselves which none else on earth or in hell can
do ! If all the world were combined against you,
or all the devils in hell were combined against you,
they could not destroy you without yourselves, nor
make you sin but by your own consent : and will
you do that against yourselves which no one else can
do? You have hateful thoughts of the devil, be-
cause he is your enemy, and endeavoreth your de-
struction ; and will you be worse than devils to your-
selves ? Why, thus it is with you, if you had hearts
to understand it : when you run into sin, and run
from godliness, and refuse to turn at the call of
God, you do more against your own souls than men
or devils could do besides ; and if you should set
yourselves and bend your wits to do yourselves the
greatest mischief, you could not devise to do a
greater.
4. You are false to the trust that God hath re-
posed in you. He hath much intrusted you with
your own salvation ; and will you betray your trust ?
He hath set you, with all diligence, to keep your
hearts ; and is this the keeping of them ? Prov.
4:23.
5. You do even forbid all others to pity you, when
you will have no pity on yourselves. If you cry to
God in the day of your calamity for mercy, mercy ;
what can you expect, but that he should thrust you
away, and say, " ISTay, thou wouldst not have mercy
THE UN CONVERTED.
IGl
on thyself : who brought this upon thee but thy
own wilfulness 3" And if your brethren see you
everlastingly in misery, how shall they pity you that
were your own destroyers, and would not be dis-
suaded ?
6. It will everlastingly make you your own tor-
mentors in hell, to think that you brought yourselves
wilfully to that misery. 0 what a piercing thought
it will be, for ever to think with yourselves that this
was your own doing ; that you were warned of this
day, and warned again, but it would not do ; that
you wilfully sinned, and wilfully turned away from
God ; that you had time as well as others, but you
abused it ; you had teachers as well as others, but
you refused their instruction ; you had holy exam-
ples, but you did not imitate them ; you were offered
Christ, and grace, and glory, as well as others, but
you had more mind to your fleshly pleasures : you
had a price in your hands, but you had not a heart
to lay it out. Prov. 17 : 16. Can it fail to torment
you to think of this your present folly? 0 that
your eyes were open to see what you have done in
the wilful wronging of your own souls ; and that
you better understood these words of God, " Hear
instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed
is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my
gates, waiting at the posts of my doors ; for whoso
findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the
Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongetb
B. Call. 11
162
A CALL TO
his own soul : all they that hate me love death."
Pro v. 8 : 33-36.
And now I am come to the conclusion of this
work, my heart is troubled to think how I shall leave
y ou. lest after this the flesh should still deceive you,
and the world and the devil should keep you asleep,
and I should leave you as I found you, till you
awake in hell. Though in the case of your poor souls,
I am afraid of this, as knowing the obstinacy of a
carnal heart ; yet I can say with the prophet Jere-
miah, " I have not desired the woful day, thou Lord
knowest.,, 17 : 16. I have not, with James and
John, desired that k< fire might come from heaven "
to consume them that refused Jesus Christ. Luke
9 :54. But it is the preventing of the eternal fire
that I have been all this while endeavoring : and 0
that it had been a needless work! that God and
conscience might have been as willing to spare me
this labor as some of you could have been. Dear
friends, I am so loath that you should lie in ever-
lasting fire, and be shut out of heaven, if it be pos-
sible to prevent it, that I shall once more ask you,
What do you now resolve ? Will you turn, or die ?
I look upon you as a physician on his patient in a
dangerous disease, that saith to him, " Though you
are far gone, take but this medicine, and forbear but
these few things that are hurtful to you, and I dare
warrant your life ; but if you will not do this you
THE U N CONVERTED.
163
are but a dead man.,, What would you think of
such a man, if the physician, and all the friends he
hath, cannot persuade him to take one medicine to
save his life, or to forbear one or two poisonous
things that would kill him ? This is your case. As
far as you are gone in sin, do but now turn and come
to Christ, and take his remedies, and your souls shall
live. Cast up your deadly sins by repentance, and
return not to the poisonous vomit any more, and you
shall do well. But yet, if it were your bodies that
we had to deal with, we might partly know what to
do for you. Though you would not consent, yet
you might be held or bound while the medicine was
poured down your throats, and hurtful things might
be kept from you. But about your souls it cannot
be so ; we cannot convert you against your wills.
There is no carrying madmen to heaven in fetters.
You may be condemned against your wills, because
you sinned with your wills ; but you cannot be
saved against vour wills. The wisdom of God has
thought meet to lay men's salvation or destruction
exceeding much upon the choice of their own will,
that no man shall come to heaven that chose not
the way to heaven ; and no man shall come to hell,
but shall be forced to say, " I have the thing I chose,
mv own will did bring me hither." ISTow, if I could
JO '
but get you to be willing, to be thoroughly, and re-
solvedly, and habitually willing, the work were more
than half done. And alas, must we lose our friends,
i64
A CALL TO
and must they lose their God, their happiness, their
souls, for want of this? 0 God forbid! It is a
strange thing to me that men are so unnatural and
stupid in the greatest matters, who in lesser things
are civil and courteous, and good neighbors.
For aught I know, I have the love of all, or al-
most all my neighbors, so far, that if I should send
to any man in the town, or parish, or county, and
request a reasonable courtesy of them, they would
grant it me ; and yet when I come to request of
them the greatest matter in the world, for them-
selves and not for me, I can have nothing of many
of them but a patient hearing. I know not whether
people think a man in the pulpit is in good earnest
or not, and means as he speaks ; for I think I have
few neighbors but if I were sitting familiarly with
them, and telling them what I have seen and done,
or known in the world, they would believe me and
regard what I say ; but when I tell them from the
infallible word of God, what they themselves shall
see and know in the world to come, they show by
their lives that they do either not believe it or not
much regard it. If I met any one of them on the
way, and told them yonder is a coal-pit, or there is
a quicksand, or there are thieves lying in wait for
you, I could persuade them to turn by ; but when
I tell them that Satan lieth in wait for them, and
that sin is poison to them, and that hell is not a
matter to be jested with, they go on as if they did
THE UNCONVERTED.
165
not hear me. Truly, neighbors, I am in as good
earnest with you in the pulpit as I am in any famil-
iar discourse ; and if ever you will regard me, I be-
seech you let it be here.
I think there is not a man of you all, but if my
own soul lay at your wills, you would be willing to
save it, though I cannot promise that you would
leave your sins for it. Tell me, thou drunkard, art
thou so cruel to me, that thou wouldst not forbear
a few cups of drink, if thou knewest it would save
my soul from hell ? Hadst thou rather that I did
burn there for ever than thou shouldst live soberly
as other men do ? If so, may I not say, thou art
an unmerciful monster, and not a man ? If I came
hungry or naked to one of your doors, would you
not part with more than a cup of drink to relieve
me ? I am confident you would. If it were to
save my life, I know you would, some of you, haz-
ard your own ; and yet will you not be entreated to
part with your sensual pleasures for your own sal-
vation ? Wouldst thou forbear a hundred cups of
drink to save my life, if it were in thy power, and
wilt thou not do it to save thy own soul ? I profess
to you, sirs, I am as hearty a beggar with you this
day for the saving of your own souls, as I would be
for my own supply, if I were forced to come begging
to your doors ; and therefore if you would hear me
then, hear me now. If you would pity me then, be
entreated now to pity yourselves. I do again be-
166
A CALL TO
seech you, as if it were on my bended knees, that
you would hearken to your Redeemer, and turn, that
you may livre.
All you that have lived in ignorance, and careless-
ness, and presumption to this day ; all you that have
been drowned in the cares of the world, and have
no mind of God and eternal glory ; all you that are
enslaved to your fleshly desires of meats and drinks,
sports and lusts ; and all you that know not the ne-
cessity of holiness, and never were acquainted with
the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost upon your
souls ; that never embraced your blessed Redeemer
by a lively faith, and with admiring and thankful
apprehensions of his love ; and that never felt a
higher estimation of God and heaven, and a heartier
love to them than to your fleshly prosperity, and the
things below ; I earnestly beseech you, not only for
my sake, but for the Lord's sake, and for your soul's
sake, that you go not on one day longer in your for-
mer condition, but look about you, and cry to God
for converting grace, that you may be made new
creatures, and may escape the plagues that are but
a little before you. And if ever you will do any
thing for me, grant me this request, to turn from
your evil ways and live. Deny me any thing that
ever I shall ask you for myself, if you will but grant
me this ; and if you deny me this, I care not for
any thing else that you would grant me. Naj, as
ever you will do any thing at the request of the Lord
THE UNCONVERTED.
167
that made you, and redeemed you, deny him not this ;
for if you deny him this, he cares for nothing that you
shall grant him. As ever you would have him hear
your prayers, and grant your requests, and do for you
at the hour of death and day of judgment, or in any
of your extremities, deny not Ids request now in the
day of your prosperity. 0 sirs, believe it, death and
judgment, and heaven and hell, are other matters
when you come near them, than they seem to carnal
eyes afar off : then you would hear such a message as
I bring you with more awakened, regardful hearts.
Well, though I cannot hope so well of all, I will
hope that some of you are by this time purposing to
turn and live ; and that you are ready to ask me, as
the Jews did Peter when they were pricked in their
hearts and said, " Men and brethren, what shall we
do ?" Acts 2 : 37. How may we come to be truly
converted ? We are willing, if we did but know
our duty. God forbid that we should choose de-
struction by refusing conversion, as hitherto we have
done.
If these be the thoughts and purposes of your hearts,
I say of you as God did of a promising people, Deut.
5 : 28, 29, " They have well said all that they have
spoken. 0 that there were such a heart in them,
that they would fear me, and keep all my command-
ments always !" Your purposes are good : 0 that
there were but a heart in you to perform these pur-
poses ! And in l?,ope hereof I shall gladly give you
168
A CALL TO
direction what to do, and that but briefly, that you
may the more easily remember it for your practice.
Direction I. If you would be converted and saved,
labor to understand the necessity and true nature of
conversion ; for what, and from what, and to what,
and by what it is that you must turn.
Consider in what a lamentable condition you are
till the hour of your conversion, that you may see it
is not a state to be rested in. You are under the guilt
of all the sins that ever you committed, and under
the wrath of God and the curse of his law ; you are
bondslaves to the devil, and daily employed hi his
work against the Lord, yourselves, and others ; you
are spiritually dead and deformed, as being devoid
of the holy life, and nature, and image of the Lord.
You are unfit for any holy work, and do nothing that
is truly pleasing to God. You are without any promise
or assurance of his protection, and live in continual
danger of his justice, not knowing what hour you
may be snatched away to hell, and most certain to
be damned if you die in that condition ; and nothing
short of conversion can prevent it. Whatever civil-
ities, or amendments, or virtues are short of true con-
version, will never procure the saving of your souls.
Keep the true sense of this natural misery, and so of
the necessity of conversion, on your hearts.
And then you must understand what it is to be
converted ; it is to have a new heart or disposition,
and a new conversation.
THE UNCONVERTED.
169
1. Consider for what you must turn. For these
ends following, which you may attain : 1 , You shall
immediately be made hving members of Christ, and
have an interest in him, and be renewed after the
image of God. and be adorned with all his graces, and
quickened with a new and heavenly life,, and saved
from the tyranny of Satan and the dominion of sin,
and be justified from the curse of the law. and have
the pardon of all the sins of your whole lives, and be
accepted of God. and made his sons, and have liberty
with boldness to call him Father, and go to him by
prayer in all your needs, with a promise of accept-
ance ; you shall have the Holy Ghost to dwell in you,
to sanctify and guide you : you shall have part in the
brotherhood, communion, and prayers of the saints ;
you shall be fitted for God;s service, and be freed from
the dominion of sin, and be useful, and a blessing to
the place where you live ; and shall have the promise
of this life, and that which is to come : you shall want
notliing that is truly good for you, and your necessary
afflictions you will be enabled to bear ; you may have
some taste of communion with God in the Spirit, es-
pecially in all holy ordinances, where God prepare th
a feast for your souls ; you shall be heirs of heaven
while you live on earth, and may foresee by faith the
everlasting glory, and so may live, and die in peace :
and you shall never be so low but your happiness will
be mcomparably greater than your misery.
How precious is every one of these blessings, which
170
A CALL TO
I do but briefly name, and which in this life you may
receive !
And then, 2. At death your souls shall go to Christ,
and at the day of judgment both soul and body shall
be justified and glorified, and enter into your Master's
joy, where your happiness will consist in these par-
ticulars :
(1.) You shall be perfected yourselves : your mor-
tal bodies shall be made immortal, and the corruptible
shall put on incorruption ; you shall no more be hun-
gry, or thirsty, or weary, or sick, nor shall you need to
fear either shame, or sorrow, or death, or hell : your
souls shall be perfectly freed from sin. and perfectly
fitted for the knowledge, and love, and praises of the
Lord.
(2.) Your employment shall be to behold your
glorified Redeemer, with all your holy fellow-citizens
of heaven, and to see the glory of the most blessed
God. and to love him perfectly, and be beloved by
him. and to praise him everlastingly.
(3.) Your glory will contribute to the glory of the
new Jerusalem, the city of the 'living God, which is
more than to have a private felicity to yourselves.
(4.) Your glory will contribute to the glorifying of
your Redeemer, who will everlastingly be magnified
and pleased in you ihat are the travail of his soul, and
this is more than the glorifying of yourselves.
(o.) And the eternal Majesty, the living God, will
be glorified in your glory, both as he is magnified by
THE UNCONVERTED.
171
your praises, and as he communicateth of his glory
and goodness to you, and as he is pleased in you, and
in the accomplisliment of his glorious work, in the
glory of the new Jerusalem, and of his Son.
All this the poorest beggar of you that is converted
shall certainly and endlessly enjoy.
2. Next, you must understand from what you must
turn ; and this is, in a word, from your carnal self,
which is the end of all the unconverted ; from the
flesh, that would be pleased before God, and would
still be enticing you ; from the world, that is the
bait ; and from the devil, that is the angler for souls,
and the deceiver. And so from all known and wilful
sins.
3. Next, you must know to what you must turn ;
and that is, to God. as your end ; to Christ, as the way
to the Father ; to holiness, as the way appointed you
by Christ ; and to the use of all the helps and means
of grace afforded you by the Lord.
4. Lastly, you must know by w/iat you must turn ;
and that is by Christ, as the only Redeemer and In-
tercessor ; and by the Holy Ghost, as the Sanctifler ;
and by the word, as his instrument or means ; and
by faith and repentance, as the means and duties on
your part to be performed. All this is of necessity.
Direction II. If you will be converted and saved,
be much in secret serious consideration. Inconsider-
ateness undoes the world. Withdraw yourselves oft
into retired secresy, and there bethink you of the end
172
A CALL TO
why you were made, of the life you have lived, of the
time you have lost, the sins you have committed ; of
the love, and sufferings, and fulness of Christ ; of the
danger you are in ; of the nearness of death and judg-
ment ; of the certainty and excellency of the joys of
heaven, and of the certainty and terror of the tor-
ments of hell, and the eternity of both ; and of the
necessity of conversion and a holy life. Absorb your
hearts hi such considerations a»s these.
Direction III. If you will be converted and saved,
attend upon the word of God, which is the ordinary
means. Head the Scripture, or hear it read, and other
holy writings that do apply it ; constantly attend on
the public preaching of the word. As God will lighten
the world by the sun, and not by himself without it, so
will he convert and save men by his ministers, who are
the lights of the world. Acts 26 : 17, 18 ; Matt. 5 : 14.
When he had miraculously humbled Paul, he sent
Ananias to him, Acts 9 : 10, and when he had sent
an angel to Cornelius, it was but to bid him send for
Peter, who must tell him what to believe and do.
Direction IY. Betake yourselves to God in a course
of earnest constant prayer. Confess and lament your
former lives, and beg his grace to illuminate and con-
vert you. Beseech him to pardon what is past, and to
give you his Spirit, and change your hearts and lives,
and lead you hi his ways, and save you from temp-
tation. Pursue this work daily, and be not weary
of it.
THE UNCONVERTED.
173
Direction V. Presently give over your known and
wilful sins. Make a stand, and go that way no farther.
Be drunk no more, but avoid the very occasion of it.
Cast away your lusts and sinful pleasures with detes-
tation. Curse, and swear, and rail no more ; and if
you have wronged any, restore, as Zaccheus did ; if
you will commit again your old sins, what blessing
can you expect on the means for conversion ?
Direction VI. Immediately, if possible, change
your company, if it hath hitherto been bad ; not by
forsaking your necessary relations, but your unneces-
sary sinful companions ; and join yourselves with
those that fear the Lord, and inquire of them the
way to heaven. Acts 9 : 26 ; Psalm 15 : 4.
Direction VII. Deliver up yourselves to the Lord
Jesus, as the physician of your souls, that he may par-
don you by his blood, and sanctify you by his Spirit,
by his word and ministers, the instruments of the
Spirit. He is the way, the truth, and the life ; there
is no coming to the Father but by him. John 14 : 6.
Nor is there any other name under heaven by which
you can be saved. Acts 4:12. Study, therefore, his
person and natures, and what he hath done for you,
and what he is to you, and what he will be, and how
he is fitted to the full supply of all your necessities.
Direction VIII. If you mean indeed to turn and
live, do it speedily, without delay. If you be not
willing to turn to-day, you are not willing to do it at
all. Remember, you are all this while in your blood,
174
A CALL TO
under the guilt of many thousand sins, and under God's
wrath, and you stand at the very brink of hell ; there
is but a step between you and death : and this is not
a state for a man in his right mind to be quiet in. Up
therefore presently, and fly as for your lives, as you
would be gone out of your house if it were all on fire
over your head, 0, if you did but know in what con-
tinual danger you live, and what daily unspeakable
loss you sustain, and what a safer and sweeter life you
might live, you would not stand trifling, but presently
turn. Multitudes miscarry that wilfully delay when
they are convinced that it must be done. Your lives
are short and uncertain ; and what a case are you in,
if you die before you thoroughly turn ! You have
stayed too long already, and wronged God too long.
Sin getteth strength while you delay. Your conver-
sion will grow more hard and doubtful. You have
much to do, and therefore put not all off to the last,
lest God forsake you, and give you up to yourselves,
and then you are undone for ever.
Direction IX. If you will turn and live, do it un-
reservedly, absolutely, and universally. Think not to
capitulate with Christ, and divide your heart between
him and the world ; and to part with some sins and
keep the rest ; and to let that go which your flesh can
spare. This is but self-deluding ; you must in heart
and resolution forsake all that you have, or else you
cannot be Iris disciples. Luke 14 : 26, 33. If you will
not take God and heaven for your portion, and lay all
THE UNCONVERTED.
375
below at the feet of Christ, but you must needs also
have your good things here, and have an earthly por-
tion, and God and glory are not enough for you, it is
vain to dream of salvation on these terms ; for it will
not be. If you seem ever so religious, if yet it be but
a carnal righteousness, and if the flesh's prosperity,
or pleasure, or safety, be still excepted in your devot-
edness to God, this is as certain a way to death as
open profaneness, though it be more plausible.
Direction X. If you will turn and live, do it re-
solvedly, and stand not still deliberating, as if it were
a doubtful case. Stand not wavering, as if you were
uncertain whether God or the flesh be the better
master, or whether sin or holiness be the better way,
or whether heaven or hell be the better end. But
away with your former lusts, and presently, habitu-
ally, fixedly resolve. Be not one day of one mind
and the next day of another ; but be at a point with
all the world, and resolvedly give up yourselves and
all you have to God. Now, while you are reading,
or hearing this, resolve ; before you sleep another
night, resolve ; before you stir from the place, resolve;
before Satan have time to take you off, resolve. You
will never turn indeed till you do resolve, and that
with a firm unchangeable resolution.
And now I have done my part in this work, that
you may turn at the call of God and live. What
will become of it I cannot tell. I have cast the seed
176 A CALL TO THE UNCONVERTED.
at God's command ; but it is not in my power to give
the increase. I can go no further with my message ;
I cannot bring it to your heart, nor make it work ; I
cannot do your part for you, which is to entertain it
and consider it ; nor can I do God's part, by opening
your heart to cause you to entertain it ; nor can I
show heaven or hell to your sight, nor give you new
and tender hearts. If I knew what more to do for
your conversion, I hope I should do it.
But 0 thou that art the gracious Father of spirits,
thou hast sworn thou delightest not in the death of the
wicked, but rather that they turn and live ; deny not
thy blessing to these persuasions and directions, and
suffer not thine enemies to triumph in thy sight, and
the great deceiver of souls to prevail against thy Son,
thy Spirit, and thy word. 0 pity poor, unconverted
sinners, that have no hearts to pity or help themselves.
Command the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, and
the dead to live, and let not sin and death be able to
resist thee. Awaken the secure, resolve the unresolv-
ed, confirm the wavering ; and let the eyes of sinners,
that read these hnes, be next employed in weeping over
their sins, and bring them to themselves, and to thy
Son, before their sins have brought them to perdition.
If thou say but the word, these poor endeavors shall
prosper to the winning of many a soul to their ever-
lasting joy and thine everlasting glory. Amen.
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